


Baby Avengers

by livinlavidalokid



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Baby Avengers, F/M, Kid Fic, accident with magic, loki's a little shit, mommy!clint & mommy!natasha
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-09
Updated: 2013-04-23
Packaged: 2017-12-07 23:37:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 46,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/754436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/livinlavidalokid/pseuds/livinlavidalokid
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Natasha never wanted children... However, fate sometimes has an uncanny ability of taking what you want, stomping on it, and laughing in your face." Loki turns four of the Avengers, and himself into children, leaving Clint and Natasha as their surrogate "parents" until a cure is found. Rated T for language and adult themes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place in an AU where Loki escaped before Thor took him back to Asgard.  
> This was originally posted on ff.net, but I decided to upload it here as well (since I just got an account).  
> Enjoy!

Chapter 1  
-  
Natasha never wanted children. She had been a spy for as long as she could remember - she had started her training young, and of times before that her memories were hazy and hard to recall. She was good at her job too; she was known by law enforcements around the world, and her ability to find the target or get the information she needed was unparalleled.

No, she stood by what she said to Loki - that love is for children. Love is for children and she wanted nothing to do with either them.

However, fate sometimes has an uncanny ability of taking what you want, stomping on it, and laughing in your face.

-

Natasha woke abruptly to her phone ringing loudly on her small bedside table. She sat up quickly and reached to answer it.

"What is it?" She asked, trying not to let the irritation she felt enter into her voice.

"Natasha, we need you to go into the city," Nick Fury's voice sounded on the other end. "Loki's being a little shit."

Natasha couldn't hold back a grin and chuckle at that. "When's he not? I'll be at Stark Tower in fifteen."

It had been a year since the Avengers had first assembled. New York City hadn't quite put itself completely back together, but it was well on its way.

Tony, of course, had spared no expense, and his enormous tower had been fixed, with several new levels added – one for each Avenger. Natasha had gone and seen her floor when Tony had gathered them together to have a grand unveiling. She had to admit, he had done a really nice job. It was simple and done in tasteful colors, with a personal kitchen, bedroom, two bathrooms, a gym, and a Jacuzzi tub on the balcony. There were stairs on one end (for fire emergencies, of course) and a sleek elevator on the other end.

She had also gone and seen the others as well, and had to give Tony props. He had done a very nice job on all of them. Bruce and Steve had moved in, as had Thor – who had decided to stay on Earth for a while to lend his strength in the rebuilding process as well as to help them whenever Loki popped back up. Clint claimed that he liked his apartment too much at the moment to leave it for the Avengers tower, and Natasha too had decided to forgo moving in right away. Although she had no excuse, she figured that the Hawk genuinely did like his nest too much to leave at the moment – it was on the top floor of a very high building, and he was very proud.

She shook her head to get her mind back on track as she got dressed.

Since Loki's first appearance in New York, after he had escaped Loki had not really caused too much extreme damage – mostly just silly, reversible pranks.

She put on her typical work outfit, ran a brush through her hair, and was out the door five minutes later heading to her car.

Fifteen minutes later she was pulling into Tony's parking garage beneath the tower.

That man has more cars than anyone else on earth, Natasha thought. He certainly doesn't use them – the bastard flies everywhere he can.

Natasha got out of her car and made for Tony's elevator. Fury had alerted her that everyone was meeting on the top floor – Thor's floor. It had direct access to the roof where those who could fly could easily take off. It also held one of Tony's helicopters for those who could not fly.

When she arrived, everyone was standing on the balcony, looking out over New York City and the bay area. As she reached them she realized why.

Loki had given the Statue of Liberty a helmet, not unlike his own horned helm.

"Oh god..." she muttered. Steve turned around and nodded at her.

"Our thoughts exactly," he said. The rest of the group followed him when he headed back inside.

"The only way to remove it will be to convince Loki to take it off her," Tony scowled. "The little shit."

"Yeah," Bruce agreed, Natasha saw a pair of high-tech binoculars in his hands. "He didn't just put one on her, he made it part of the statue. We can't just pull it off."

"If we kill him, do the effects of his magic go away?" Clint said irritably – Natasha could understand, he had been affected the most by Loki's magic.

"I will not allow him to be killed," Thor said, his tone not allowing for debate.

"Alright, alright," Natasha said, trying to keep the arguing to a minimum. "First, do we know where Loki is?"

"He's sitting on top of the statue." Bruce handed her the binoculars and she took a few steps back toward the window and looked towards the statue. Sure enough, Loki was sitting on top of one of the enormous horns he had put there. He was without horns and armor himself, and she thought she could see a cup of coffee in his hand. She raised an eyebrow and handed Bruce the binoculars back.

Steve cleared his throat and looked at them.

"Here's what we'll do: Tony and Thor will fly over and do their best to capture him, and Clint, Natasha, Bruce and I will follow in the helicopter to bring him back to SHIELD where we will attempt to convince him to take the helmet off of the Statue of Liberty. "

Tony snorted, and looked skeptically at Steve. "Great plan, Cap! But you forget that every time we've tried to get the little bastard-"

"He is not a bastard!" Thor interjected, affronted by the word.

"The little shit," Tony amended, rolling his eyes, "he's gotten away."

"Well, we've still got to try!" Steve insisted.

"He's right, we can't just let him go," Natasha added. "I'm sure the media is already all over this, and it's not even eight am."

It was fifteen more minutes before they finished hammering out their plan. They headed to the roof and Tony suited up. As she got into the helicopter Natasha had a feeling in her gut that this was not going to end well; she didn't often get bad feelings, but she couldn't ignore the churn in her gut as Clint lifted them off of the helipad.

Six hours later Natasha was at SHIELD headquarters, staring in disbelief at the five sleeping children in front of her. Clint stood next to her with the exact same look on his face.

She went through the events of the day in her head for what had to be the millionth time.

They had arrived at the Statue of Liberty to see Loki still sitting in the same spot as when Natasha had looked. There had been a lot of words exchanged before Tony had gotten impatient and attacked. Thor had landed next to Loki and attempted to grab his brother, but Loki had disappeared and reappeared over on the other horn, yelling about Thor always falling for that trick ever since they were little.

Tony had tried to attack again, but had been repelled by a blast from Loki's new scepter – Natasha had no clue where he had gotten it, he just showed up with it one day about five months after the attack. She thought he just liked carrying it around, because it didn't seem like he actually needed it to work his magic, it was just something to channel it through. Tony had hit the helicopter, which had shaken violently, causing Bruce to fall out, and Captain Rogers to jump out. Thor had flown down and caught Bruce, setting him on the horn next to where Steve had landed. Natasha's eyes had widened and her heart started beating double-time as she prayed to whoever was listening that he wouldn't Hulk-out. That was not something that they needed now – and she knew it would depress him because he had been without incident since he had first joined the team a year ago.

Everyone except for Clint and herself had been on that horn opposite Loki who stood facing them on the other side. Thor had tried to reason with his brother, who had responded with a scathing retort about him not being a child that Thor could just boss around like when they were children.

Then Loki had gotten a horrible grin on his face; he had pointed his staff at the men across from him and shot a blast of bright white magic.

Natasha had watched in horror as the four men started to shrink down, clothes and all, to the size of children before falling unconscious – no doubt a side effect from the magic.

Adding incredulity to injury, Steve's shield had managed to deflect some of Loki's magic at the same time as it hit Steve, and Loki's blast was reflected back at him; and he too shrunk and passed out on the horn.

Before she or Clint knew it there were five little kids unconscious on the top of the Statue of Liberty.

Whatever motherly instincts Natasha possessed buried deep within her at that moment suddenly flared to life as she saw her teammates and enemy on top of that incredibly tall statue. She had yelled at Clint to fly closer, and she had jumped out onto the horn and grabbed Steve and Bruce, the two closest, and put them inside the helicopter; she then had gone back and grabbed Thor, leaving his hammer – which had not shrunk, and she had zero chance in hell of lifting – and Tony – whose suit had shrunk with him. She was thankful that Loki's magic has knocked them out, because otherwise she was sure that they would all be screaming. Once all of her teammates and she had made it back onto the helicopter, she looked back at the tiny black haired boy who was laying on the far horn.

"We can't just leave him!" She had yelled at Clint. He had given her a skeptical look, but flew over to the other side. Natasha had jumped out, picked up the tiny villain, and gotten back into the chopper. Clint flew as fast as he could back to Stark Tower. Once they were landed, Natasha and Clint looked over the five sleeping children who lay around Natasha on the floor of the chopper.

"What the hell?" Clint said. Natasha had just shaken her head in disbelief.

Now, she couldn't take her eyes off of them. The four tiny Avengers were all still sleeping in a room that Natasha thought was a conference room. She and Clint were on one end of the room, leaning next to each other against the wall.

"You have to admit," Clint said. "They're kind of adorable." Natasha glared at him.

"These are our teammates. How will they do their jobs if they aren't even potty trained?"

"Well, Loki won't be causing us any trouble. I don't think. At least not until SHIELD can figure out how to change them all back."

"If they can change them back. . ." Natasha muttered under her breath. He was right, however, about them being well – she could admit it to herself – cute. She looked back at the tiny Avengers. Tony's miniaturized suit had been removed and he was sleeping in the black pants and shirt that he had been wearing when he suited up. In this young form he had no mustache, and the bit of gray he had in his hair was gone. To Natasha, who really did not have too much experience with young people, Tony looked to be about four. Steve was by far the tiniest, and Natasha was reminded that before the serum Steve had been even smaller even than her. She couldn't really gauge his age because of his size, because he looked to be about two but she had a hunch that she was wrong. Bruce had the same curly dark brown hair that his adult self had had, and looked just a bit younger than Tony. Thor's beard had also disappeared in his tiny form. He looked the oldest by far – perhaps five – and Natasha remembered that he had mentioned being a few thousand years older than all of them. Something about being a god and all. He had his long blond hair, but it was now fine, and very light.

"How the hell are we going to fix them?" Natasha wondered out loud, talking to herself. There was no response from Clint.

An hour later the Avengers and the prankster were awake. A SHIELD woman had come and given them a set of legos to play with, and Nick Fury summoned Natasha and Clint.

"How did this happen?" He asked, his voice as irritable as ever. Natasha told him the story. They were told that a pediatrician was coming in to look at the newly-created children, for check-ups.

"Sir, what about Loki?" she asked after she was finished filling him in.

"I imagine we'll have to keep him here."

"But what about the other four? We're not equipped to care for five little kids!"

"What do you expect me to do? We can't exactly put them up for adoption or into foster homes. We don't know what their brains are like yet – are they actual children or just trapped in tiny bodies? Or is it some messed-up combination of the two? We don't know yet!"

Natasha and Fury argued back and forth until Clint spoke up, interrupting them, looking thoughtfully at the door standing in between them and the sleepy children who were so recently towering over him.

"What if Nat and I watched over them, just until a cure is found?"

If looks could kill.

-

Clint had always kind of wanted kids. He just never had had the opportunity. As he watched Natasha and Fury argue, the idea popped into his head and he couldn't let it go.

Besides, it made sense – to him at least. He and Natasha were incredibly equipped to deal with any trouble the tykes could dish out.

So he went for it. And the two just stared at him. Natasha looked like she wanted to murder him, but Nick had a thoughtful look in his eye.

"That might work," he said after a few moments.

Three hours later, Clint sat in a van being driven by Natasha. He looked behind him at the five car seats on two rows of car benches. He couldn't help but laugh at four-year-old Tony. He kept hitting three-year-old Steve, who sat right next to him. Tony was talking up a storm about everything that happened since he had woke up, and even as a four-year-old he sounded like he liked himself a little too much, and he certainly had the words to express it. Steve, however, was just glaring at Tony, "Stop it!"

"Tony, stop hitting Steve," Clint said.

"Why?" Tony asked, temporarily halting his abuse.

"Because if you don't I'll hit you." Clint didn't mean it, but it got Tony to leave Steve alone. Clint glanced at Natasha. She was staring straight ahead, her eyes narrowed. It had taken a while to get her to (very reluctantly) agree; but she did finally did so. They were currently headed back to Stark Tower, where they planned to live while they had to take care of the four little superheroes and super-villain. They were moving into Tony and Pepper's floor; the "main" floor – if a tower with over 50 stories could have a main floor. Clint was excited because it was the floor that had an enormous balcony overlooking New York. He did so enjoy being up high in the air.

Pepper had agreed, after the initial shock of seeing her beau as a toddler, to help look after all the boys at night after she was done at work, as well as the weekends.

Clint turned back around as a five-year-old Thor declared that he was hungry enough to eat an eight-legged-horse, which for some reason made the three-year-old Loki sitting next to him cry.

"We're almost home and we'll eat then, alright buddy?" He said to the blond god, who smiled broadly back at him and nodded vigorously. He glanced at Bruce, who hadn't said much yet, and was just staring out the window.

"What're you looking at, Bruce?" He asked, trying to get a feel for if this three-year-old version of Banner was the same calm and zen Banner that he knew.

"The buildings are really tall," he said, his quiet voice emphasizing his awe. Clint suddenly understood the phrase "child-like wonder".

"Well, the building where we live is really, really tall."

"Cool!" Bruce said, pumping his tiny fist in the air. Loki, who had stopped crying, copied him, pumping his own tiny fist in the air all the while smiling a wide toothy grin that was eerily similar to the one he flashed often as an adult right before he did something unexpected and usually unpleasant. Sure enough, he suddenly transformed into a copy of Bruce.

"Holy sh-cow!" Clint said, catching his language at the last minute – even though they technically were as old (and older) as he was, he still felt morally obligated to watch his language around kids.

"What?" Natasha shouted, concern and alarm apparent in her voice.

"Well, it appears that Loki can still shape-shift. Must've been something he was born with," Clint sounded wary. He still harbored resentment towards the God of Mischief for the events that transpired when they first met.

"Great!" Natasha said. "Now not only do we have to deal with five toddlers, but one of them can shape-shift, and one of them is probably going to turn into the hulk whenever we won't give him what he wants!"

"What's a hulk?" Tony asked as he started punching Steve again.

When they arrived at Stark Tower, Pepper met them on the bottom floor, reacting with some shock at seeing them. She had been filled in, of course, and it was her idea that they should live in Stark Tower with her, but nevertheless hearing that your boyfriend and his teammates were turned into children is one thing, but actually seeing them is a whole other ordeal. However, in her typical fashion, she regained her usual professional persona and took Tony and Steve in hand, and led them all up to the floor that she and Tony lived on.

Clint hadn't seen that floor after Tony rebuilt it, and was pleased. When they first walked through the main door they were greeted with a wide expanse that encompassed the living room and the dining room, the latter raised up a half-foot on a platform. There was a big, comfortable-looking couch, with a loveseat caddy-corner to the right, and an armchair directly across from it. A huge television faced the couch. An arching doorway led through to a spacious kitchen. To the right of the door was a wide hallway containing several doors on either side.

Pepper gave them the tour, showing them the guest room and its bathroom across the hall, a "game room" (which was really just another TV room with a stereo system and gaming consoles), Tony's enormous office, a linen closet, and a small gym – she told them that there was a much bigger gym one floor down. To the left of the living room was a much shorter hallway that ended in Tony and Pepper's bedroom.

A few hours later Clint was in the difficult process of getting all five boys to sit around the dinner table, which was relatively stressful. Thor was chanting "Food! Food! Food!" Loki was yelling at him to stop, Tony was asking over and over again what they were having, and Steve and Bruce were fencing with their forks. Clint glanced up in time to see Natasha and Pepper walk out of the kitchen, their hands full with four of the five dinner plates loaded with chicken nuggets, mashed potatoes, and raw carrots.

"Clint, could you go get the last plate?" Pepper asked. He went and got the plate and hurried back to the dining room. He set it down in front of Loki, who pushed it away.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"I don't want that," Loki replied, crossing his arms impetuously.

"Well you either eat that, or you don't eat."

"Clint!" Pepper chastised from where she sat next to the four-year-old version of her boyfriend. "Why don't you want that sweetie?" She got up and crouched next to Loki. He just shrugged his tiny shoulders refusing to look her in the eye.

Clint went over to where Natasha stood, observing. He leant against the wall next to her and gave her a, slightly apologetic, smile when she looked at him.

"I can't believe that the man who tried to take over the world a year ago is sitting at Tony Stark's table refusing to eat his vegetables," she said, rubbing her hand across her eyes.

"At least the others are eating without much fuss." Thor was digging in, and so were Steve and Tony. Bruce was picking at his plate, taking small bites every so often. Pepper eventually got Loki to take a few bites, and now he was taking bites when he thought no one was looking.

Clint went back into the kitchen and made up three more plates, food stacked high. He balanced two on one hand and held his own securely in the other as he made his way back to the dining room. He set one down in front of Pepper, who was once again sitting next to Tony, listening to him tell her all about his day. He seemed to know who she was – or at least that he really liked her. To what extent he knew her they had yet to figure out, but at least Pepper hadn't had to ward off the advances of a four-year-old. Yet. Clint wasn't sure to what extent any of them knew. He handed Natasha's plate over to her.  
"Hey Captain," he said. Steve looked up at him. "How're you liking your nuggets?" He asked, taking mental note that Steve had responded to his title. Steve smiled, his mouth full of chicken, and nodded his head enthusiastically.

"Why did you volunteer us for this?" Natasha said before taking a bite out of her ketchup-smothered nugget. "We're not equipped for this! We're not parents! You can't keep threatening them when they don't do what we ask. And what are we going to do when Bruce throws a temper tantrum?" Clint frowned at his plate when she spat out the word "parents".

"Calm down, Nat. We'll just take it one day at a time. SHIELD will figure out how to fix them, I don't know how, but they will. They have some smart guys with them." Clint didn't need to mention the fact that the two smartest guys they would have had were currently throwing carrots at each other. "In the meantime we just have to keep them alive." Natasha shot him a glare as Tony aimed a carrot at Loki. As he let it fly Natasha snatched it out of the air and slammed it back onto his plate. Tony didn't throw any more food after that; in fact, none of them did.

A little while later, Clint was wrestling Steve and Bruce into their pajamas, which was not easy because they were tired, didn't want to go to bed, and fought him every time he advanced with the suddenly offending clothing. Pepper had gone last minute to the nearest mall and had basically bought out the children's clothing section at JCPenny's with Tony's money. She has also had five twin-sized beds express delivered – also with Tony's money - to put in the "guest room", which was more like "guest quarters" because of the sheer enormity of it. Natasha would sleep in the game room, which had a rather nice pullout bed. Clint was to sleep in the living room on the couch. He didn't really mind, and Natasha was still mad at him for volunteering to be caregivers instead of assassins so there was no chance of her sharing the pull out bed with him, as they had done during missions before when there was limited sleeping space.

After he got Steve and Bruce in bed he watched as Natasha tucked Thor in bed. Tony was already sprawled out on his bed, almost asleep as Pepper kissed him on his forehead and then bade them good night as she went to prepare to go to bed herself.

Clint looked on as Loki and Natasha stared at each other. So far the tiny god had fought them on everything. Clint thought it was because he remembered his distaste for them – well them minus Clint, whom he had chosen when he first came to Earth and had for some reason taken a liking to. Clint avoided interacting with the tiny super-villain, however. Natasha said it was just because Loki was a stubborn person who had been that way his whole life.

Clint just found him irritating beyond belief. Eventually Loki's drowsiness got the better of him and he lost his staring contest with Natasha.

"Are you going to go to sleep now?" She asked softly.

"No," Loki told her, even as his eyelids were drooping closed.

"Okay then," she said, patting Loki on the top of the head. Loki lay down and tried to keep his eyes open to stare defiantly up at her, but eventually Natasha's patience won out and Loki's eyes closed.

"I hope they sleep through the night," Clint said as he and Natasha filed out of the boys' room. He turned out the light, and the room filled with a faint blue glow from Tony's arc reactor.

"They should," Natasha said. "They're about the age now where they sleep all night and go all day." She sighed and bid him good night, heading the opposite way down the hall from Clint who headed back to the living room.

Clint went to his large duffel bag that sat on the end of the couch and got out a t-shirt and a pair of flannel sleep-pants. He changed and headed to the bathroom to brush his teeth. When he was finished he sat down on the couch and spread out the blanket that Pepper had set out for him.

"JARVIS," he said, lying down.

"Yes, sir?"

"Please alert me if any of the little ones wake up."

"Yes, sir, shall I display the camera?"

"Uh," Clint thought for a second. "Why not, go ahead." Suddenly a holographic display screen popped up in front of Clint in the middle of the living room. He could clearly make out all five of them, all in their respective beds save Loki who was curled up next to his brother. Clint smiled and thought; at least he's sleeping.

Clint watched for another minute or two before he, too, closed his eyes and fell asleep.


	2. Chapter 2

Natasha woke up in a bad mood the next morning. It was probably because there was a multitude of loud and decidedly high-pitched screams and screeches coming from the living room.

"JARVIS, what time is it?" She asked, her voice thick with sleep.

"Six-fifteen am, Miss Romanoff."

"Oh my god," she groaned. She was able to wake up early when she needed to for work, but other than that she prized her sleep – probably because she never seemed to get enough of it. "JARVIS how many of them are awake?

"All five, as well as Mr. Barton and Ms. Potts."

Natasha got out of her bed and stretched. She pulled the blankets up and messily made the bed before she folded it back into the couch. She took a deep breath as the squeals got louder, and were accompanied by a low-pitched on that couldn't be anyone other than Barton. Natasha swore under her breath in Russian, and vowed to kill him when this was all over.  
When she was dressed in a pair of jeans and the first t-shirt she found in her duffel bag, she went out into the living room.  
She was greeted with the sight of Steve, Tony, and Thor attacking Barton from all sides. Despite herself she chuckled when Thor jumped onto his back from on top of the couch. He may be in a five-year-old body, but Thor was still a big boy.

She glanced around and saw Bruce and Loki working on a puzzle. Every time Bruce looked away to find another piece that fit Loki would remove one and put it behind his back. Even as a three-year-old he's causing problems. She sighed, and glanced towards the kitchen. She could hear Pepper moving around, cooking breakfast before she left for work.

She went and sat down next to Loki and Bruce. "Hey guys, what're you doing?"

"Making a puzzle!" Bruce said enthusiastically. Natasha picked up the box; it was a picture of the New York skyline – 1000 pieces. When and why did Tony get this? She wondered idly as she put it down and looked at Loki. He stared back, and she smirked and gestured behind his back and then pointed to the puzzle. Loki grinned, and reached back to grab the ten-or-so pieces he had removed.

"Hey!" Bruce yelled, slapping Loki on the arm. Natasha's eyes grew wide with alarm and silently pleaded that with whatever deity would listen that Bruce didn't get too upset.

"Hey Loki, why don't we go see what Pepper's making in the kitchen," she quickly stood and picked Loki up, ignoring the absurdity that she was carrying the man who had threatened to kill her the year before.

"Well, hey there," Pepper said, looking up from the eggs being scrambled in a pan as Natasha walking into the kitchen.  
"Good morning, Pepper," Natasha replied. Loki mumbled good morning and fiddled with Natasha's hair. "Loki was playing a little prank on Bruce, weren't you?"

"No," he replied. Natasha looked at Pepper, who was smiling and nodded her head. Pepper's smile faltered as she remembered the Other Guy. She turned back to the stove.

"Loki, do you like eggs?"

"I don't know," he said, and he started wiggling to get out of Natasha's grip. She let him down and he ran into the other room, where Clint was still wrestling Thor, Tony and Steve. Natasha frowned.

As much as she didn't really like kids, it irritated her that Barton seemed to be better with them than she was. She chalked it up to her competitive personality.

"Loki's just as stubborn now as he was when he was an adult." Pepper said, turning the stove off. She put the eggs in a large bowl and took the bacon that had been frying out of the skillet. "I hope I made enough. Boys eat a lot..." Natasha helped her take everything they needed to the table, and called to Barton to gather everyone together at the table.

"Alright everyone, let's eat!" There was a chorus of "yeah!" from the boys in the living room, and they all ran to the table.

"What're we having?" Tony's loud voice asked, and as Pepper enlightened them all Natasha looked around the table. Loki was missing. She finished spooning eggs and bacon onto Steve's plate, and went to look for him. As she walked away she could hear Pepper yell "Thor, save some bacon for the rest of us!"

She found him in Tony's office/library. He was sitting with an astronomy book on his lap, looking at the pictures.

"Hey," she said, crouching down beside him. "Breakfast is ready." He looked up at her, and blinked.

"Why isn't Asgard in here?" His voice was high-pitched, young, and so innocent that Natasha just looked at him, taken aback. He remembers Asgard?

"I don't know, Loki," she finally said. "But I have an idea. How about after breakfast you draw Asgard and we'll add it to the book. How does that sound?"

"Good!" He closed the book and jumped up, and ran back to where the table was bustling with activity. Loki jumped onto his seat and waited as Natasha served him his food. She sat down next to him and dished herself the remaining eggs and took the last piece of bacon.

After breakfast, the boys and Clint went back to the living room, where he turned on the television. Tony and Bruce immediately began to fight over what they should watch, each yelling at JARVIS, so causing the screen to constantly flicker back and forth between a soccer game and Teletubbies. Eventually Steve caught on and joined in, backing up the gunning for Teletubbies. Natasha prayed that the soccer game won out.

It didn't.

She felt a tugging on her t-shirt. Looking down, she saw it was Loki. "Can I have paper please?"

"Of course," she said, heading towards Tony's office. Loki followed behind. "JARVIS, where is plain white paper?"

"In the printer," he said, and Tony's huge custom printer opened and the paper tray was shown. She grabbed a stack of it and walked to the desk and found a pen.

She led Loki back into the living room and set the paper and pen down on the glass coffee table. "Have fun, honey."

A few hours later Natasha was interrupted from the book she was reading on the couch by JARVIS's calm voice.

"Miss Romanoff," the voice rang out. "Director Fury is on the line." Natasha sighed.

"I'll get it in the office." She walked back to the office, and closed the door. "Agent Romanoff," she stated as she put her book on the desk.

"Good morning, Natasha," Fury's deep voice greeted her.

"Good morning, Director. What can I do for you?"

"I called to check in and inform you on the present situation outside your new happy family." Natasha's eyes narrowed and she frowned. Thankfully Nick Fury couldn't see her. "The press has gotten hold of pictures that were taken as you confronted Loki yesterday. So far they haven't run any stories, but they will, and we want you to give a statement so that they can get it. . .right."

Natasha couldn't help but let her eyes go wide. Has it really only been one day?

"Natasha?"

"Yes, of course. I'll talk to them. Do you have a contact?" She asked, feeling a slight well of dread start to pool in her stomach. She usually had no trouble with interviews, but she really had no answers. She knew only a little more than her fellow New Yorkers. They had zero idea how long they would be in this situation, and they still didn't know how changed the boys' memories were. Obviously they still retained some of themselves. Steve had responded to Captain, Loki remembered Asgard, and Tony remembered Pepper.

"You're going to talk to Jason Baker on Saturday." Tomorrow, Natasha thought. "And you just need to tell him what happened, and that we don't know very much yet."

Natasha was just about to reply when there was a loud yell and a crash from the living room.

"What was that?" Nick Fury demanded, but Natasha had already left the room.

She had thrown the phone down and run into the living room. She paused for half a second to see Clint putting everything he had into restraining a Great Dane-sized Hulk who was thrashing around in the broken glass that used to be the coffee table. The four other boys were watching from on top of the couch, eyes wide and faces shocked.

Natasha threw herself next to Clint and the Hulk and grabbed the arm that kept getting out of Clint's grasp. She started up a string of soothing words, trying to calm him down.

"Why is he green?" Tony yelled over the Hulk's roars.

"Tony, go to your room! All of you!" Natasha ordered, and something in her voice must have cowed them, because they all ran to their room without a complaint. Loki lingered for a moment longer, looking confused, but he too went to his room.

It took ten solid minutes of brute strength and a steady stream of calming words before he calmed back down and the Hulk shrunk down to Bruce. He looked up at Natasha, eyes wide, and promptly passed out. Clint unwound himself from Bruce's limbs and let the boy slump against his chest.

"What happened?" Natasha said, finally. Clint started laughing. "What?" Natasha ground out, irritated. She stood up and went to grab a broom and dustpan to clean up the broken coffee table. Clint had wrapped Bruce up in a blanket on the couch and laid him down. He took the dustpan from Natasha and held it against the floor.

"Loki took his toy."

"What?" Natasha said, becoming exasperated with Clint's cheery attitude.

"Loki took Bruce's toy, that's why he hulked out," Clint clarified, looking up at Natasha from his crouched position on the living room floor. The absurdity of the whole situation was keeping him from taking the smile off of his face.

Suddenly Natasha started to laugh, loudly, bordering on hysterics. She clutched the broom in both hands and collapsed on the couch, careful not to sit on Bruce. She laughed at the situation, at the events of the past two days, and at the utter absurdity of her life at the moment. She had never in her life thought that she would be cleaning up a broken coffee table in Tony Stark's house while a tiny Bruce Banner slept off his latest Hulk episode. She laughed for a good five minutes, Clint laughing with her, before she calmed down and tried to get her breathing in check.

"Never," she gasped out, "never in my life have I wanted children. I started my training when I was young; I never thought my life would have any "normal" in it."

"If this is what normal people go through, I don't want normal," Clint said as he moved to sit on the couch next to her; Bruce slept on in between them.

"Me either," Natasha said, taking a deep breath to let out the last of the hysteria that had built in her chest. "Right, well. Obviously they aren't ours, but like it or not, we have kids now. JARVIS?"

"Yes, Miss Romanoff?"

"Please order me some books dealing with how to raise toddlers. Use Tony's money."

"I have found six that come with very high recommendations. I will order them now."

"Thank you." She looked over at Clint, he had both eyebrows raised slightly, an incredulous look on his face. "Are you going to help me clean up this mess or not," she said.

They stood up and finished cleaning up the glass on the carpet.

Natasha handed the broom to Clint, and he took it and the dustpan back into the kitchen. Natasha picked Bruce up and made her way to the boys' room. When she entered the room all four boys looked up. Tony and Steve had been playing with hot wheels, and it looked like Thor had been trying to wrestle with Loki – he was sitting on Loki's chest when Natasha walked in.

"Hey guys," she said, setting Bruce down on his bed. "We've got to talk about something. Thor, let Loki up." Thor got off, and Loki shot up and jumped on to his bed. Natasha sat on Thor's bed and motioned for everyone to join her.

"Why did Bruce turn green?" Steve asked – he sounded genuinely concerned.

"It was so cool!" Tony yelled, Thor loudly agreeing.

Loki was silent, looking at Natasha warily, as if he expected to be reprimanded. Natasha was slightly bemused at the look, because he was only three - but then again, he had lived many lifetimes and had been reprimanded many times if the myths were anything to go by. Humans didn't call him the God of Mischief for nothing.

"Loki, come here. You're not in trouble." The tiny trickster slid off his bed and went to sit on Thor's bed in front of Natasha with his brother and the other Avengers.

"So, Bruce has this problem" she started, not quite sure whether or not to try to explain why Bruce became the Hulk. She decided against it. "He can't get mad, or else he turns into the Hulk."

"Is that the green thing?" Tony asked.

"Yes, Tony. And the thing is, is that the Hulk is not a nice guy. So I'm going to need you guys to not be mean to him, or take his toys-" she directed that one at Loki; he looked down at his hands. "Okay?"

"Okay," Tony, Steve, and Thor chorused. Natasha lifted Loki's chin so that he was looking at her. "Okay, Natasha," he said.

"Alright, now go play," she said. "And Thor, no more sitting on Loki!"

"Okay!" He yelled from the other side of the room, but she didn't expect him to really listen.  
She stood up from the bed and turned around to leave the room. Clint was standing in the doorway. "Nice job," he said, smiling. "For a woman who never wanted kids, you're kind of good with them."

"Oh shut up," she pushed past him and headed for the office.

"No seriously," he continued from behind her.

"Clint, go make them lunch. I kind of hung up on Fury when Bruce hulked out." Clint laughed and headed back down the hall towards the kitchen.

"Good luck!" He called. She heard him yell, "Who's hungry?" before she closed the office door.

The phone was still on the floor where she had thrown it. She picked it up and saw that the line was dead – she hadn't even hung up before she ran into the living room. She hit the end button and then dialed the number Fury had given her to use the day before. It rang once before he answered.

"Natasha, what the hell is going on?"

"Loki pissed Bruce off and the Hulk broke Tony's glass coffee table," she said, her voice as stoic as always. Nick stayed silent for a few seconds before he laughed.

"Well I'll be damned. How big was he?"

"About the size of a fully grown Great Dane," she couldn't help the chuckle that escaped as she spoke.

"Right, well. Tomorrow Jason Baker will be at Stark Tower at 1300. He's allowed to take pictures but you have veto power, so if you don't think the picture is flattering enough of the situation you are allowed to delete it from his camera; and he's only allowed to use one picture in the story."

"Is he coming alone?"

"Yes. He has worked for SHIELD before, so he knows what we like and what we don't like. Also mention that we have convinced Dr. Reid and the Fantastic Four to agree to mobilize should we need them."

"Alright, sounds like nothing I can't handle. Is there anything else, sir?" Natasha sat down behind Tony's obnoxiously large desk and leant her elbows against it, running one hand through her hair. She glanced at the clock and saw that it was already twelve.

"How are you coping?" Nick asked, his slightly softer than usual. He had known both Clint and Natasha for a long time, and knew that this whole situation was not a cup of tea for either of them.

"I'm doing fine, so is Barton. It's a lot to handle, but we can handle it. We have to hope that episodes like the one today with Bruce won't be everyday events. I think we will have to keep a very close eye on Loki. He's not the trickster god for nothing – and now I'm seeing that he's probably been like that his whole life." Fury made an affirming grunt on the other end.

"They – and you for that matter – will probably start to go stir-crazy soon, so as soon as your article runs you can start to leave the tower."

"That will be a welcome relief."

Natasha and Fury ended the call not long after that – neither one for idle chitchat. Natasha hung up the phone and sat for a few moments, staring at the closed office door.

"JARVIS, show me the security footage of the living room and the kitchen, real time please."

"Of course, Miss Romanoff." Instantly two holographic video screens flared to life above the desk in front of her. She looked at the kitchen feed first and smiled when she saw Clint making grilled cheese sandwiches on the stove. Bruce had woken up and was sitting on the counter next to him, wearing only a pair of shorts. She turned her attention to the living room feed. She laughed at the sight of Thor once again sitting on someone, only this time it was Tony, who was actually putting up a fight. She watched as Steve climbed on the couch and jumped on top of Thor and Tony; she heard the resulting "oof!" and yelling from Thor and Tony down the hall.

Loki was sitting alone on the armchair adjacent to both the couch and the television. He had his legs drawn up, and she couldn't see exactly what was in his lap, but she guessed it was the same paper he had been drawing on earlier in the morning.

"You can turn them off now, JARVIS." Natasha stood up as the screens faded away. She headed to the kitchen, stopping in the boys' room to grab a shirt for Bruce.

"Hey guys," she said when she got into the kitchen. "I got a shirt for you, buddy," she stood in front of Bruce. "Arms up."

"What did Fury have to say?" Clint asked as she slipped Bruce's shirt over his small body.

"He said that I'm supposed to let this guy interview me so that the public can have the full story. He's coming over here tomorrow at 1300. He's also going to take pictures, so don't wear that," she gestured to his old jeans and t-shirt he had on.

"Yes ma'am," he said, flipping the grilled cheese without using a spatula.

"Whoa!" Bruce said, "Do it again!" Clint flipped the sandwich a few more times.

"Is that the last one?" Natasha asked.

"Yeah, unless you want one too." Natasha considered it for a moment, and shrugged.

"Why not? Come on Bruce, why don't you help me set the table?" She lifted him down to the floor, and handed him seven paper plates. She grabbed the plate with a stack of sandwiches on it and followed Bruce into the dining Room.

A few minutes later the table was set and Natasha was gathering all the boys to the table.

She lingered in the living room after all five boys had left, looking at whatever it was that Loki had been doing.

He had been drawing, she saw, confirming her prior observation. And he was pretty damn good – for a three year old. Natasha guessed that he had retained the skill that he had had centuries to perfect. He had drawn a landscape – it was a bit crude and under-detailed, but she could tell that he definitely had an idea of where he had grown up. She wondered if Thor remembered as much. In fact, she wanted to know how much any of them actually knew of their own lives.

As she returned to the dining room, she vowed to find out.

-

Clint lay on his couch that night staring at the ceiling long after everyone had gone to bed. His thoughts were running back over the events of the day.  
After lunch, things had been (what he presumed was considered) a calm day to a normal family. Nat had herded all of the boys into the living room and had settled the dispute over which movie they would watch. While Clint had been cleaning the table, she had called Pepper to see where Tony kept his movies. Natasha had told him later that Tony owned pretty much every movie ever made, archived within JARVIS's seemingly infinite system.

Tony had insisted on Star Wars, and so they had spent the entirety of the afternoon watching A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and The Return of the Jedi.  
Clint had never seen them before, so he hadn't complained. After the movies Natasha and Pepper made dinner while Clint rough-housed with the boys again – he, of course, was deemed Darth Vader, and they were the Jedi trying to defeat him. Loki was no exception, proudly faking his death dramatically, while Thor avenged his death, landing the "final" blow on Clint.

After dinner it had been bath time. The three adults had conferred for a few minutes, and in the end Natasha and Clint decided to take two each – Pepper would take just Tony – and they would all go at the same time and get everyone done at once so that they could actually go to bed afterwards. Luckily Tony had three full baths on his floor – though why he needed three full bathrooms, Clint had no idea.

"Just get over it Barton! It's nothing you haven't seen before," Natasha said when he tried to find swim trunks for Steve and Bruce to wear in the tub.

"That's not the problem!"

"Then what is?"

"They're my friends, teammates, and maybe I don't want to see that much of them!"

"They're four!"

"I really hope they don't hit me when they're big again..." He muttered as he ushered Steve and Bruce into the bathroom adjacent to the boys' room.

He filled the bath with warm water, and then looked at Steve and Bruce, who stood behind him as he kneeled next to the big bathtub. Ah, fuck it. If they remember later, we'll just cross that bridge when we come to it.

"Alright guys, strip." He had helped Steve pull his shirt off and then recoiled as Bruce jumped into the tub, effectively drenching Clint.

"Thanks." he said dryly. Bruce flashed him a wide smile. Steve jumped in next, but he garnered less of a splash than his darker-haired friend.

It hadn't been as awkward as he had thought – three and four year-olds have no shame. Clint wryly thought about how modesty did not seem to be a trait they had retained in their de-aged states.

He made sure that they got all of the shampoo out of their hair, helped them dry off, and put on their pjs after they were done.

He followed them back out of the bathroom and could not contain his laughter when he saw Pepper looking as exasperated as Tony usually made her. She was standing in the middle of the room while Tony jumped on his bed, stark naked.

"Would you help me hold him down?" She asked, trying to control her tone.

"Come on, Tony, let's get ready for bed."

"Nope!"

Clint laughed before leaping onto the bed and grabbing Tony around the middle. There had been a struggle – during which Natasha and the Asgardian brothers had entered.

After Clint and Pepper succeeded in getting Tony dressed for bed, they spent another twenty minutes trying to convince all five of them to go to sleep. Finally, after telling them a harrowing, and mostly true story of a time when Clint and Natasha had worked in Russia together, all five boys were still in bed and on their way to passing out.

Now, as Clint lay in bed, he thought about another time he and Natasha had worked together – in Budapest, fighting side by side – but with completely different ends in mind.

He didn't think about it often, but whenever he did, he always became sad.

He didn't regret hesitating when he had been in position to end her like SHIELD had wanted, and he didn't regret the night they had spent together – during which he had been prepared to carry out his mission and kill her. But he hadn't, and he didn't regret it at all.

What he did regret was letting her get away afterwards. He hadn't seen her for three years after that, until SHIELD had called him back in and she was there, completely on SHIELD's side now. Clint had been happy to see her again – hoping that they could pick up where they had left off, but Natasha had never treated him as anything other than a fellow SHIELD agent since.

He had been more pleased than was probably professional when he learned that she had been worried about him while he was under Loki's control.

He wiped a hand over his face, trying to dispel the creeping feelings. He rolled over, but it took him a while to fall asleep.

The next morning, Clint woke to someone poking him on the face – the same way he had been wakened the previous day.  
"Clint," Tony's voice broke through his sleep-ridden haze.

"What is it?"

"We're hungry." Clint sighed and opened his eyes.

"JARVIS, what time is it?"

"Seven am, sir."

"Dammit," Clint muttered as he sat up. He looked over at Tony, Steve, and Bruce, all standing in front of the couch. "Alright, what do you guys want?"

"Bacon!" Bruce said.

"And pancakes," Tony said, his tone so serious you would think that there was nothing on earth as important as pancakes.

"What about you, Cap?" Clint stood and the boys trailed after him into the kitchen.

"Can I have eggs?"

" 'Course you can," Clint said through a yawn. "You guys go play quietly while I make breakfast. Where are Thor and Loki?

"I dunno," Tony said with a shrug. Clint suspected it was less that he didn't know and more that he didn't care.

"They must still be asleep." Clint said. It was Saturday so he expected Pepper to sleep in a little, but he really didn't know when Natasha would wake up.

As he was mixing the pancake batter he heard a loud crash from the living room. He ran out of the kitchen, praying that Bruce hadn't gotten pissed off again. It turned that Tony had just dumped a lego bin upside down, pouring all of his legos onto the ground.

"Come on, Tony, I asked you guys to be quiet. People are still sleeping."  
"Sorry Clint!" Tony stage whispered.

Clint went back into the kitchen and made breakfast listening to the soft sounds of the boys playing in the living room. They stayed quiet, save for a small argument over who gets which lego spaceship. He was relieved that they seemed to be heeding Natasha's warning about not making Bruce angry – it also helped that the kid seemed just as zen as he had been as an adult. Keeping himself calm had been such a huge part of his life for the past six years that it seemed it would take a lot more than being turned into a child for him to lose his cool.

After a little while, Clint heard another child join the three in the living room. It didn't take long to hear that it was Thor.

At eight o'clock, Clint had finished cooking up a stack of pancakes, a pile of bacon, and a huge bowl of scrambled eggs. As he took all of it to the breakfast table and told the four boys to dig in, he saw that Loki still had not joined them.

He stuck his head into the boys' room and saw that Loki was sitting in the corner of the room with several sheets of printer paper strewn around him. He had a book three times the size of his head balanced on his lap, and another piece of paper on the book. He had a pen in his hand, and was concentrating very hard.

Clint went over and sat down in front of him. "Hey buddy, what're you drawing?"

"Why do you and Natasha and Pepper keep calling me 'buddy'? That's not my name, it's Loki." He sounded genuinely concerned that they did not know what his name was.

"I'm sorry Loki, on, uh, Midgard," he hesitated when for a split second, trying to remember the Asgardian name for Earth, "buddy is just a nickname." Loki didn't reply for a minute.

"I'm drawing the nine realms. They aren't in this Midgardian book of stars." Clint's eyebrows rose. It was strange hearing this come from the mouth of a three-year-old. But then again, he reminded himself, Loki is actually a few thousand years old – it makes sense that he's more advanced than the others. Clint wondered why Thor wasn't the same, but attributed it to Loki just generally being more intelligent than his brother.

"So, you like drawing?" Loki just nodded. "Well, why don't you take a break and come eat breakfast?" Clint patted the top of Loki's head and stood up. He realized that it was a bit patronizing, but he couldn't bring himself to care – when it came to Loki Clint's brain worked just a bit differently than it did with the others. He couldn't tell if it was remnant from Loki's mind control, or his grudge against the man for the mind control.

Loki looked up at him with a curious look on his face. "Is there pancakes?"

"Of course."

Loki smiled, carefully closed the huge astronomy book and stood up, catching Clint's hand and effectively dragging him out in to the living room.

An hour later the boys (all five of them) were either playing with legos and hotwheels in a miniature town they had built or watching The Lion King in the living room. Clint was sitting on the couch next to Pepper; both were nursing their second cups of coffee.

"Clint, why did Scar kill Mufasa?" Steve asked him. He sounded genuinely distressed about this plot point.

"Because he's an asshole," Clint replied. He had never actually seen The Lion King before.

"Language!" Pepper admonished.

"Sorry, sorry," Clint said half-heartedly. A few minutes later Pepper said goodbye to the boys and Clint and headed out make her 9am massage – living with Tony was stressful, and she figured she didn't need to be there for the interview.

"Okay guys!" Natasha said as she entered the living room. "The journalist is going to be here at one, and when he gets here you will all be on your best behavior." She directed a pointed look first at Tony, then at Loki. "Clint could you get them all dressed before he gets here?" Clint nodded as Natasha headed to the kitchen to get her own cup of coffee.

"JARVIS, pause the movie," The screen stopped and Steve, Bruce, and Loki all rose in a chorus of protestation.

"Come on, guys, let's go get dressed." It took quite a while, but eventually all five boys (plus Clint) were dressed and back in the living room.

At one o'clock the boys were still playing. They had roped Clint into a game of hide and seek, and he was counting to one hundred (one, two, ten, fifteen. . .) when JARVIS announced that a visitor was waiting in the first-floor lobby of Stark Tower.

"Get the boys together in their room, and please keep them quiet," Natasha said as she went to the intercom near the door that led to the hallway containing the elevator. "Actually, keep Tony and Thor quiet, the others aren't much of a problem. Mr. Baker?" She said into the intercom. Clint couldn't hear the reply. "Yes, come on up. JARVIS, please let him in."

"Yes, Miss Romanoff." A few minutes later, there was a knock on the door, and Clint herded the boys into their room. Natasha didn't want to "unveil" the boys until she got a feel for the story this guy was going to write, and Clint didn't blame her. There was no way to tell how the public was going to react to the fact that four of the six people who had saved them from a megalomaniac alien (from a place that most, if not all of them, hadn't known about or believed in), had been turned into toddlers by the same vainglorious alien. It would be best to break it to them in a way that wouldn't cause as much of a media uproar. So Clint entertained the boys quietly in their room for an hour, until Natasha poked her head in to summon them into the living room.

"Hey guys," She said, and the boys looked up at her. "Come on out here."

The four Avengers jumped up and ran out of the room, bored with the toys they had brought into the room. Loki, however, closed the book he had been flipping through – Clint had no idea which it had been – and walked to the door to survey the living room before he entered it. Clint moved so that he was just behind him and put his hand on top of his head.

"What's up, Loki?" Loki turned his head up to look at Clint.

"Who's that?" He sounded somewhat apprehensive, but mostly curious. Clint noted that he had always had a tendency to ask the hows and whys of everything before he made any moves.

"That's Jason Baker. He's a writer here to write a story about us."

"Why?"

Clint hesitated on this one. If the boys had any inkling about their superhero (or supervillain) states, they didn't show it. And Clint suspected that even as a three-year-old Loki wouldn't be as satisfied with a bullshit answer like "because we're awesome" like the others might. Perhaps he would sit them down later and tell them what had happened. But not now. Natasha was giving him a look from where she was standing in the living room.

"Come on, I'll tell you later." Loki took his offered hand and followed him out. Natasha was seating the boys on the couch, and the journalist was sitting on one of the adjacent armchairs. He lifted Loki onto the couch, who settled down next to Thor. Clint walked over to Jason Baker.

"Clint Barton," he said, his hand outstretched. The other man stood and shook his hand, introducing himself. He started to say something, but his words were cut off by an outburst from Tony.

"No, you may not have grilled cheese now. I don't care how nicely you ask."

"But I'm hungry!" tony whined. Clint couldn't help the smile that cracked across his face. Natasha put her hand on top of Tony's head.

"You can eat after this, okay?" Natasha tried her best not to let the exasperation Clint knew she was feeling creep into her voice.

"Okay, let's get this done. How do you want us for the photo?" She asked Jason, turning around, her hand still on Tony's head. Clint thought it looked like she was trying to hold him down.

-

Fifteen minutes later, Clint was in the kitchen with Steve and Bruce. They were sitting on the counter as Clint made hot dogs in the microwave.

He could hear Natasha in the living room giving Jason some guidelines for the article that he suspected Fury had given her. Clint understood the need to inform the public in a way that was truthful and accurate, but he wished that there didn't have to be an entire story on them. As a spy, it unnerved him to have his name available for public viewing – he was used to being undercover and he suspected Natasha felt the same. He wished that the public could be happy with the fact of what happened and be done with it.

He heard the main door open and heard Pepper enter. She tried to introduce herself to Jason, but was drowned out by Tony's boisterous greeting.

"Hi, Pepper!" Tony cried. Clint laughed. Tony sounded like he hadn't seen her in a few years, instead of only about five hours. Tony then launched into an epic tale of everything he'd done since he last saw her. After an apologetic grin and nod to Jason, Pepper herded Tony away from where Natasha and Jason were.

"Hey Pepper," Clint said when she entered the kitchen and Tony stopped for breath. She returned his greeting and those from Steve and Bruce.

"How did it go?" She asked.

"It went well," Clint replied. "They all behaved and I'm pretty sure Natasha's interview went well – at least I hope it did," he added under his breath. It was then that Natasha appeared in the entryway to the kitchen.

"Did he leave?" Clint asked her, taking the finished hot dogs out of the microwave. He put them on a plate and set to getting out buns to defrost.

"Yeah. It went well," Natasha said, going to the oven as it beeped. She pulled on an oven mitt and took the tray of French fries out and set them on top of the stove. Natasha filled Clint and Pepper in on what the reporter had asked about after shooing the boys back into the living room. When she was done, the three adults stood in silence for a few moments.

"What are we going to do if SHIELD can't figure out how to turn them back?" Pepper asked in a low voice. "I mean, sure, I wanted to settle down and have a family – but I wanted to have kids with Tony, not have Tony as a kid!"

"None of us wanted this, Pepper," Natasha said, her voice short. "I never wanted children period, but here we are."

"Guys, come on. They'll figure it out." Natasha and Pepper turned to him and he could feel the color draining a little from his face from their respective glares. "At least, I hope. But for now we've just got to deal. We've got five kids in there who need us, regardless of whether we want to be here or not." He picked up the plate of buns from the microwave and began preparing eight plates of hotdogs.

He heard a sigh from Natasha.

"You're right." He glanced at Natasha, who was regarding him with what he could only describe as resignation on her usually stoic face, "They need us."

He glanced at Pepper, who also looked resigned. Suddenly Tony bounded into the kitchen announcing his ravenous hunger, as he latched onto Pepper's leg. She laughed and ruffled his hair.  
"I know sweetie, it's almost ready. Why don't you help me set the table?" Clint noticed the wide, genuine smile across her face, and thought that at least she might be able to be happy even if they never figured out how to put the Avengers, and Loki, back to normal.

Much later that night, Clint sat on the couch, watching a low-volume recorded soccer game. He was reclined with his arm stretched out across the back of the couch, trying to will himself to become tired. His mind just wouldn't shut up. What if they never figured out how to change them back? Well, he thought as a frown creased his brow, they'll probably be raised by SHIELD into agents – even Loki. Especially Loki... shape-shifting and magic would be useful... Clint turned his attention back to the TV, intent on putting aside thoughts of the future for now. SHIELD was working on it, and there's nothing he could do for now. He felt the couch dip beside him. He looked over to see Natasha dressed in a baggy sweatshirt and yoga pants. Clint couldn't help but think how pretty she looked.

"Can't sleep either?"

"No," she grumbled, her voice low and tired. "JARVIS, what time is it?"

"One fifteen am."

"Shit," he looked over to see Natasha wipe her face with both hands. "You know they'll be up early."

"They always are." Clint gave her a wry smile. "Why can't you sleep?"

Natasha didn't answer for a minute. She finally looked up at him and sighed. "I'm just thinking of the strange turns my life has taken." Clint nodded. His own life had been a roller coaster from the time he was a child and his parents died, and it hadn't stopped since. "And the thing that gets me," Natasha continued, "is that out of everything I've done and been through, living domestic here with you and Pepper and five little boys is the strangest part.

Clint could help the chuckle that escaped as she finished speaking. She shot him a look.

"Sorry, sorry, it's just that I completely understand. I feel the same way," he tried to sound sincere but a yawn ate his last few words. There was a moment of silence between them. "But things change. And you know, not constantly risking your life and being shot at and captured and. . . tortured sounds kind of okay to me. If not permanently, then at least for now." He tried to gauge Natasha's reaction as she stared down at the loose string on her sweatshirt that she was picking at. After a minute, he looked down and leaned forward so that he could look into her eyes.

"Maybe you're right. Not almost dying everyday is nice." She smiled at him and cautiously unfolded her legs from under her so that she could lean against him. Clint smiled and looked down at the top of her head as she got comfortable.

"Just like Budapest all over again," she mumbled.


	3. Chapter 3

Natasha woke to something poking her cheek. She figured it was one of the boys, and hoped that if she stayed still, he would go away. After a moment the poking stopped, but her mattress dipped as if something large were climbing on top of it. She groaned and rolled over to her back, intending to see what whoever it is was. When she opened her eyes, she was greeted by a pair of green eyes surrounded by a green face. Natasha's eyes went wide and she shot out of bed, breathing deeply to quell her rising panic.

As she stood there on the other side of her bed, ready to defend herself, the Hulk simply sat there, looking up at her.

What the hell is going on!? Natasha thought, bewildered.

Suddenly the Hulk smiled and shrank back down to small child size – only it wasn't Bruce.

"Loki!" Natasha admonished. Loki gave a smile and laughed. Natasha moved around the bed so that she could grab Loki's chin. "You cannot do that. You cannot scare me like that."

Suddenly Clint burst through the door to Natasha's room.

"What happened?" He asked, sounding as panicked as Natasha felt.

"Loki played another prank," she said, shaking her head as Loki laughed again. She didn't like how shaky her voice sounded.

"It was funny though!" Loki defended, still smiling.

"You can play pranks, and turn into other people, but don't scare us, okay? And do not turn into the green guy!"

"Okay," he agreed begrudgingly. He jumped off the bed and ran out of the room, dodging Clint's hand as he tried to ruffle Loki's hair.

Natasha sat down heavily on her bed and looked at Clint. She wanted to remark on his incredibly slow response to her yell, but she was too tired.

It had been twenty-one days since this whole journey started.

A few days ago, Loki had realized that he could turn into just about anything, and had enjoyed pranking them all with it ever since. The other boys got a kick out of it and it kept them occupied, so Natasha, Clint, and Pepper hadn't tried to limit it too much.

Natasha got up and called "JARVIS, what's the time?"

"Eight-oh-two am, Miss Romanoff."

"Well, at least he let me sleep past seven today," she mumbled.

"Breakfast is almost ready," Clint said as he left the room to let her get dressed in peace.

As Natasha pulled on jeans and a t-shirt, she remembered that today was the day that Jason Baker's article was supposed to run. She was anxious to read it, and finished dressing quickly so that she could go down to the first floor and get it out of Tony's mailbox.

-

As she rode the elevator back up to the floor they lived on she flipped through the paper , locating the story on page two. At first glance she was pleased with it. It was relatively short, proving that Jason had stuck to the facts as he had agreed. What pleased her the most was that the picture was small and not the focus of the page. She could see each boy, but it was black and white and hard to distinguish everyone's features, so they could go out without risk of being recognized immediately.

She re-entered the apartment to the smell of pancakes and bacon, and to the sound of Thor and Tony arguing – every now and then another boy would join in with their input.

When she sat down at the table, Steve, who sat next to her, offered her a pancake.

"Thank you, Steve," she held out her plate as Steve stood up on his chair to grab a pancake for her.

"That the article?" Clint said, sitting down across from her, between Pepper and Bruce. Natasha nodded.

"Thor, save some for everyone else!" Pepper said over her coffee mug. Natasha looked over to see Thor shoveling a whole pancake into his mouth.

"You like those?" Natasha said, smiling at him over the newspaper. He smiled widely, mouth opening as he nodded vigorously. Natasha grimaced at the lump of chewed pancake he was displaying.

Natasha turned her attention to the article and started reading.

Baby Avengers?

None of us are likely to forget the events of one year ago, when aliens attacked New York City. Neither are we going to forget how the Avengers team came together to protect us. New York City is finally starting to look like its old self again, as citizens and superheroes alike come together to repair it – despite the occasional prank by the somewhat tamed Trickster known as Loki.

But is the Statue of Liberty going to stay helmeted forever?

Early Monday morning, the city awoke to see that Loki had struck again, putting a self-matching helmet onto our beloved statue. The Avengers set out to capture him and have him to remove the helmet. However, in the process of apprehending him, Loki cast a spell that turned the Avengers into children (save for agents Black Widow and Hawkeye, who were aboard a helicopter near the scene). Loki too was caught in a backlash of the spell, and lives in similar status as our heroes.

I spoke with the Black Widow, who stated that they have specialists working on how to return the Avengers to normal. "For now we are waiting in Stark Tower for this whole situation to be remedied. We appreciate the public's understanding and respect of our privacy." It is unknown how long the Avengers and their adversary will remain in their current conditions; however, specialists employed to solve the problem are working night and day in order to solve the problem." The Black Widow also wanted to inform the public that they are still being protected, as the Fantastic Four have agreed to re-emerge in order to fill the Avengers' absence.

Natasha closed the newspaper, satisfied with the brevity of the article.

"How is it?" Clint asked from across the table.

"Good. Short, sweet, and to the point."

"Awesome," he took a big bite of pancake. Natasha started eating her own breakfast, smiling as Thor finished his own pancakes and demanded more.

-

Natasha was sitting on the couch later that day reading when she heard a loud cry from the boys' room. She marked her place in the book and closed it as the arguing coming from the other room intensified. Bruce and Tony were sitting a little ways away from her playing with legos and Steve was in the kitchen with Pepper making lunch. She didn't know where Clint was, but she guessed that he was taking a shower. That left Thor and Loki.

By the time she made it into the boys' room, Loki had turned into a dog - well, a puppy - and was biting Thor as he held a book, presumably the one Loki had been reading, up out of his reach.

"Hey!" She admonished, grabbing the puppy that was Loki and pulling him off of Thor. She looked him in the face and said, "Change back." The puppy whined as Loki once again became himself. Thor turned to leave, no doubt thinking that he could take the moment to escape, but Natasha grabbed him by the arm.

She set Loki down onto the nearest bed and gestured to Thor to do the same. "Alright, what happened?"

"Thor took my book!"

"Loki bit me!"

Natasha shook her head. "Thor, no stealing. Loki, no biting, okay?" They both nodded begrudgingly, not making eye contact with her. "Look me in the eye and promise." She waited, but neither looked up. "Thor," she warned. He shifted in his seat. "Loki?" He looked up slowly and gave a quick nod. Thor glanced over at him and did the same. "You may go." They both jumped up and ran out of the room, Thor joining Tony and Bruce. Loki climbed up on the couch and went back to flipping through his book - which Natasha was pretty sure was Grimm's Fairytales. Interesting choice, she thought absently. She went back into her room and grabbed one of the books she had ordered through JARVIS on how to raise kids. It was informative, but didn't help as much as she had hoped, as the boys were not quite the same as normal toddlers. Either way, Natasha thought, it's got some helpful tips. A few minutes later Clint joined her on the couch and turned on Mission Impossible. He and Natasha enjoyed it, laughing at the inaccuracies.

The boys played calmly for another twenty minutes until Pepper called everyone for lunch, Steve trailing behind her as she exited the kitchen. Natasha closed her book and walked over to the table. The four boys in the living room got up from what they were doing and ran back up into their spots at the table, clambering over each other for their grilled cheese and potato chips.

That night Clint sat on the couch, blearily staring at the television. The boys had chosen a cartoon movie that Clint had unsurprisingly never heard of, but he wasn't paying attention. Pepper had already gone to bed, citing a headache, and Clint could hear Natasha in the kitchen talking to Fury on the phone.

He wanted to go to bed himself, but the boys all insisted they weren't tired and wanted to stay up. He had given them five minutes, but that five kept increasing every time it was almost up – so he had finally given in and allowed them to watch the rest of the movie.

Well, Clint amended, all of them except Loki. He had fallen asleep on his side facing the back of the couch, with his feet pressed against Clint's thigh. Clint sighed, and propped his elbow up on the arm of the couch. He hadn't really interacted with Loki much in the past three weeks, because, truth be told, he was still angry at Loki for what he had done to him the previous year. Clint knew that inside that childish frame was the same insane demi-god who had invaded his most private space and forced something else in. And even though Loki may not remember much about himself, Clint did; and he wasn't one to forgive and forget so quickly.

Even as he wanted to stick an arrow through Loki's eye, Clint couldn't help but feel sorry for him. From what Thor had told them all, of Loki he hasn't always been so crazy – always the trickster and always looking to cause trouble, but never enough to try and subjugate an entire race.

Natasha had speculated that Loki was being controlled by the Chitauri, which would explain his change in behavior right after being Hulk-smashed, just as Clint had after being knocked around by Natasha.

If Loki had been controlled the whole time, Clint really felt for him. Having someone control your mind was not fun – and Clint suspected that the Chitauri weren't nearly as benign with Loki as he had been with Clint, Selvig, and the others. Clint remembered how horrible Loki had looked when he had first come through the portal. If Loki hadn't gotten away before they could really get any information out of him, they might know for sure.

Clint wondered if – no... It wouldn't be ethical to purposefully keep Loki young if they found a way to fix everyone, even if it could mean that they could raise him into a more "normal" person. We don't even know how fast he and Thor age, because Thor mentioned being several thousand years old and he sure didn't look over twenty-seven. And Loki looked younger still. Clint sighed and rubbed his palms over his eyes. You're going crazy, Barton.

The longer he watched Loki's sleeping form, the less resentment he felt towards him – even if it was only marginal. He didn't want to make excuses for him, but Clint knew what it's like to do bad things for the people you work for. . .

Actually, he thought, I just want to forget that whole thing ever happened.

Clint looked up just as the credits started rolling, and smiled in relief. "Alright boys, time for bed," he announced as he stood up. He bent over, back cracking, and picked up Loki. He started walking to the boys' room, ignoring Tony and Thor's protestations as Bruce and Steve both yawned.

Ten minutes later, Clint exited the room, but not before threatening a disgusting breakfast to anyone out of bed before eight in the morning.

He made his way to the bathroom to get ready, and found Natasha brushing her teeth. She spat the minty foam out of her mouth and asked, "Are the boys asleep?"  
"Bruce, Steve and Loki are. Tony and Thor are probably going to be in a few minutes. What'd Fury want?" Clint waited as Natasha spit out the last of the toothpaste from her mouth. Then she relayed her conversation with Fury to Clint while he brushed his own teeth.

Now that the public had been filled in on what happened Fury gave them the OK to go out every now and then. "Thank god too," Clint said. "I'm starting to get cabin fever."

-

The next morning, Clint woke up to the feeling of something jumping onto his chest. He scrunched up his face, still tired and confused, grudgingly opening his eyes. When he did, he was greeted by a pair of green eyes surrounded by black fur. When he realized that it was a kitten sitting on his chest, his eyes went wide. The kitten just stared calmly back at him.

"JARVIS, when did Tony get a cat?"

"Mr. Stark does not own a cat, sir," the AI replied in its usual neutral voice.  
Then what the hell is this? Then it hit him.  
"Good morning, Loki." He scratched Loki's ear and smiled as the kitten started purring softly. "Were you just feeling like a cat today?" The kitten deliberately nodded its head. "Well, alright then." He sat up and adjusted Loki to his lap, swinging his legs over the edge of the couch so he was sitting normally. "JARVIS, what time is it?"

"Eight forty-five, sir."

"Wow," he said looking over his shoulder at the door to the boys' room, which was slightly ajar. The boys had yet to sleep so late, but Clint put it down to the extra hour he allowed them the night before.

He shifted around so that he could see down the hall towards Nat's room, but her door was still closed so he assumed she was still asleep.

His stomach made a very unattractive sound, so he stood up – Loki in his arms – and headed over to the kitchen. As he walked, he glanced out the wall-sized windows. It was sunny with minimal clouds. Perfect, he thought. He had no plans on staying inside, not now that they were allowed out.

He set Loki down on the counter and set about making scrambled eggs and bacon for breakfast. Loki sat on the counter watching quietly. It unsettled Clint a little, but he tried to ignore it as best he could.

A few minutes later Clint heard movement from the living room, and guessed that the others were up. He poked his head out, and saw Pepper sitting on the couch holding one of Tony's toy trucks while Tony held another two and chattered away about what each truck was for and showing her the sound it made.

"Good morning," he called. Pepper looked over and smiled, mouthing "good morning" so as to not interrupt Tony's speech.

Clint saw Bruce and Steve getting out legos, while Thor sat on the armchair playing on the iPad that Pepper had used Tony's money to buy for them.

World War III had nearly started over the iPad several times already, and Pepper was considering buying each of the boys their own – and it wasn't like Tony couldn't afford it.

Clint re-entered the kitchen right as he heard Natasha's door open. He smiled and went to flip the bacon.

"Good morning," Clint said as Natasha entered the kitchen mid-yawn. She was still in the sweatpants she slept in and a t-shirt that looked suspiciously like one of his that had gone missing years ago. Her hair was a mess, she had no makeup on, and Clint thought she looked amazing.

"I haven't gotten that much sleep in – I don't know how long," she said as she leaned against the counter across from him.

"Yeah, I say we let them stay up later more often."

"Agreed. How did-" she stopped mid-sentence. "Why is there a cat on the counter?"

Clint chuckled. "Look really hard at it." He glanced around as she went over and picked Loki up and held him against her chest, petting him under the chin and studying his face.

"Ahhh, hello, Loki."

"I woke up to him jumping on my chest this morning. He was the first one up."

"Why are you still a cat? You don't usually stay changed for so long."

"Maybe he's getting more control over it. It seemed like the first few times he changed, he changed back without meaning to."

Natasha nodded her agreement, still petting Loki.

"Maybe if he's somehow re-teaching himself shapeshifting, he can relearn his other magic and change everyone back." She bent down and let Loki go after he started squirming. He darted out into the living room and smoothly shifted back into himself.

"That would be great," Clint responded.

He finished getting breakfast ready and carried it to the table. Natasha followed close behind, plates and forks in her hands. "Come on guys, breakfast's ready." All five boys ran from the living room to the elevated dining room. Natasha feared that one of them would run too quickly and trip on the step and crack their heads open, and although Clint didn't want to admit it, he shared her fear. Pepper followed a few seconds behind, still holding one of Tony's trucks in one hand and stifling a yawn with the other.  
Clint was halfway through his second helping of eggs when Natasha cleared her throat. "Well, where do we want to go today? Fury said that once the article runs, we are free to leave the Tower every now and then."

"We could go see a movie?" Clint suggested.

"Yeah!" Bruce and Steve agreed simultaneously.

"Okay, what do you want to see?"

"BATMAN!" Four out of five boys yelled; a few days prior they had decided to watch the first two movies in the series, and were very excited to see the final installment, which had just been released.

"Well then!" Pepper said, laughing. "Loki, do you want to see Batman?"

"Yes," he said decisively, taking a bite of bacon. Pepper looked at Clint and Natasha. Clint was perfectly okay with seeing Batman, though personally he wanted to see Brave. A bow and arrow wielding ginger? Hell yes, he thought. That's a perfect combination of Tasha and me. Immediately after the thought, he was mortified and felt his face go red; he hid his face behind his coffee mug so that he didn't have to look at Natasha, who was giving him a strange look.

-

At the theater Clint could see that Natasha was nervous. He could understand why, but at the same time he thought she was being a bit paranoid. While he and Pepper bought a large popcorn and a few small drinks for the boys to share, Natasha's eyes were wide open and flitting around the lobby.

"Nat, can you come grab one of these drinks?" He asked. His hands were full of a gigantic bucket of popcorn and a cup of coke that was supposed to be a small but was huge – it had been a while since Clint had been to the cinema. After everything was gathered together and Pepper had dragged Tony and Thor away from the arcade games, they made their way into the line to get their tickets ripped and from there into theater number seven. They had gotten there a lot earlier than Clint had wanted, but the consensus was to get good seats that were all together. With all eight of them, they took up the better half of a row. Pepper sat on one end, Tony and Steve next to her, with Clint in the middle, and Bruce, Loki and Thor next to him and Natasha bringing up the rear.

The time before the movie passed quickly as Clint tried to keep the boys from eating all the popcorn and drinking everything before the movie even started. He ended up being very thankful that they had arrived so early, because the theater filled up quickly; if they had arrived any later they would not have gotten seats together.

"Alright, you guys have to be quiet when the movie's on, okay? You can't talk and ask questions like you do when we're at home," Clint said a few minutes before the movie was supposed to start. To his surprise, all were so excited to see the movie that they immediately agreed. He shared a relieved smile with Natasha, and the lights began to dim.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

That night, as Pepper drove home from Olive Garden, Natasha was smiling. The movie had been excellent, and all of the boys (and Pepper) had agreed.

They had had a good and blessedly uneventful dinner afterwards, and Natasha had to say that for their first outing since the whole thing started, it went really well.

She had noticed SHIELD agents both at the theater and the restaurant, but she had expected Fury to send people just in case something did happen.

Natasha listened in contented silence as the boys chattered on about the movie, Clint right along with them. She looked behind her into the back of the van. Clint sat directly behind her and Steve and Tony sat next to him; Thor, Bruce, and Loki sat in the back row. She smiled when she saw that Loki and Bruce were both out cold, their heads lolling on either side of their car seats, Bruce's mouth wide open.

When they reached Stark Tower, Pepper ushered Thor, Tony, and Steve to the elevator while Clint unbuckled Loki, handed him to Natasha, and then unbuckled Bruce. They carried the two sleeping boys side by side to join the others in the elevator.

Once they reached their floor they set about getting the boys ready for bed. Twenty minutes later Clint, Natasha, and Pepper were sitting at the table, drinks in hand.

"How are you coping with all this, Pepper?" Natasha asked after taking a long sip of her tequila.

"It's. . . weird. A month ago we were together," Natasha took that to mean that they were screwing like rabbits, "and now he's four years old. It's weird."

"Agreed," Clint said. "A year ago I was being mind-controlled by a guy that is now asleep with the rest of the team in that room over there. Not gonna lie, I thought about drowning him in the bathtub last week." Pepper looked appalled, but Natasha nodded – she knew that he wouldn't do anything like that, but she knew him well enough to not be surprised. "But then last night when he fell asleep on the couch, and then this morning woke me up as a kitten, I'm just not angry at him anymore. Which is different for me, I usually don't just let things go that easily. Maybe I'm just getting old." He finished the last of his scotch in one go.

"I don't know how on earth SHIELD is going to fix them. They don't have that kind of knowledge, and the only people who could maybe figure it out are asleep in the other room."

"Yeah, if anyone could figure it out it's Tony and Bruce," Pepper said, and she heaved a sigh. "On a lighter note, that was a really good movie. And nothing bad happened with the little ones."

"Agreed. We're lucky that no one recognized us," Natasha said. There had been a lot of media coverage of Loki's first attack and subsequent antics around New York since then. Natasha and Clint had been able to escape most of it, with Steve and Tony being at the forefront, but she was fairly sure that everyone in America who watched the news at least vaguely knew her and Clint's faces.

"You're paranoid," Clint said. He stood up and collected the three empty glasses and took them to the kitchen. Natasha followed him and leaned against the counter.

"I may be paranoid, but sometimes I need to be. I'm paranoid enough for the both of us." Clint put the glasses in the dishwasher and started it. "You forgot the dishwasher detergent."

"Shit," he quickly opened it before it could properly begin the cycle. Natasha handed him the jug that she had grabbed from under the sink and he squirted some in and restarted it. She stared at him as he looked up and smiled at her. "No harm done."

She continued to stare into his eyes, and he stared right back. She knew that he was still in love with her. She knew, and she wanted to tell him that she returned those feelings, but she just couldn't. She had lived her whole life keeping everything locked inside; it was so hard to let them out. She didn't know how! It could never be as simple as just saying those three words she knew he wanted to hear.

So, instead, she went with the physical – the physical was safe and familiar. She took a slow step forward and kissed him. When she pulled back and looked into his eyes they were wide, surprised, and a little confused, but then he smiled and went in for another.

After a minute Natasha pulled back and grabbed Clint's hand, pulling him out of the kitchen and towards her room. She noted that Pepper had already gone to bed. Good, she thought.

When they got to her room she pushed Clint down onto her bed and locked the door. She turned around, took a breath, and, forcing herself to forget the consequences, smiled at him. She climbed on top of Clint and kissed him again. He kissed back, snaking his hands under her shirt and up over her abs. She laughed. "That tickles," she purred.

"Sorry."

"No you're not."

"No, I'm not." They laughed breathily, and Clint took the opportunity to take control. He flipped them over so that he was on top, pulled his shirt off and threw it on the floor before kissing her fiercely. Natasha followed suit, wriggling out of her shirt in between kissing Clint, and tossed it off the side of the bed. He released her wrists so that he could fumble with the button on his jeans and Natasha flipped them back over again. She gave a smug grin and smoothly unbuttoned her own pants; she slowly unzipped them before leaning down and capturing Clint's lips in a fierce kiss. They both pulled their pants off, trying to keep their lips together. Somehow Clint managed to get back on top, but Natasha didn't mind as she arched her back up so that she could unclasp her bra. Clint pulled it off and threw it off her shoulder. It landed on the top shelf on the opposite wall, about a foot below the ceiling.

-

The next morning, Natasha woke first. She was lying on her side with Clint wrapped around her, his arm around her waist. She lay there for a few minutes, her eyes closed, reveling in the warmth of having another human body that close. It had been a long time – too long , she thought – since she had been with another person, and even longer still since it had been for fun and not for a job. Using her body was not her first choice on missions, but sometimes it had to be done.

If she was honest with herself, she wished that this could be the start of something good in her life. She could use some stability, and she thought that Clint's presence could provide that for her. In the ten or so years that they had known each other, he had never faltered in his feelings for her, as far as she could tell. It had broken her heart to leave him after he had spared her life in Budapest – because she knew that he was there to kill her. Either he would have succeeded, or she would have killed him trying to stop him; and she was so grateful that he had decided to go down another path. She hadn't wanted to leave him, but she didn't know at the time that in a few years she was doing to defect to the other side. She thought that he was going to be gone from her life as fast as she could blink, and that he would move on after. But he hadn't, and neither had she really. Plus, she thought with a smirk, he's amazing in the sack.

She carefully maneuvered so that she was facing him, thankful that he was a heavy sleeper. His face looked so smooth when he slept, all of the lines erased and peaceful.

Natasha stayed where she was for a minute, looking at Clint and reveling in the early morning quiet. She wanted the time, but didn't want to ask JARVIS and risk waking Clint up, and her pullout couch-bed didn't have a bedside table or clock. After a few more minutes she carefully wriggled out of the bed. She felt energized despite the early time. She located her workout clothes quickly and grabbed her phone from where it was plugged in next to the door; as an afterthought she also grabbed her iPod and headphones. She saw that it was 6:45 and wondered, perplexed, why she was awake so early when she didn't have to be. She decided that she didn't care and unlocked the door, exiting the room quietly. Once she shut the door again she started down the hallway towards the main door so that she could go one floor down to the full gym that Pepper had mentioned was down there during their first tour of Tony's apartment. Before she left she turned around and wrote a note, leaving it on the kitchen table in case she was still gone by the time Clint or Pepper woke up.

Once she reached the 79th floor she entered the gym and was pleased to note that all of the equipment faced the floor-to-ceiling windows along the east wall. She had a perfect view of the sunrise.

Natasha headed for one of the treadmills. She put on Sergei Rachmaninov's Symphony No. 2 and started running. She loved running in particular to this symphony because she had hazy memories of her mother playing it when she was very young. It took her back to a time before her memories, when she was still innocent. She had always favored classical music; she found solitude in it - that it has no words to define its meaning, and so she can feel and believe anything within it. So much of her life is out of her control – she must always do what she is told by SHIELD, and before that by whoever hired her to carry out their dirty work, and even before that by her teachers. There is no objective in understanding music. It pulls at the heartstrings without cause, and is a quiet solitude. In some way, it helped her to stop lying to herself - if only during the course of the piece. It is her truth, and her escape.

She had been running for just over thirty minutes when she started to feel the consequences of not exercising for a few weeks. This was the first time she had really had a chance since this whole thing started; thought that didn't stop her from cursing herself for not running at least three times a week like she should have. Nevertheless she pushed through and finished her run. It was now seven forty-five and she had no doubt that at least one of the boys would be up and hungry.

Natasha headed back to the 80th floor; she wrapped her headphones around her iPod as the elevator went up. When she re-entered the apartment it was relatively quiet. She didn't see anyone at first, but when she walked around the couch she saw Steve sitting on the floor. He was playing with the little green army men that had come in a bucket of one hundred that Pepper had bought a few days ago.

"Hey Steve," she said, sitting down on the couch.  
"I'm playing army," he said happily. "These," he gestured to a platoon of upright and carefully arranged soldiers, "are us. And these," he gestured to a scattered and mostly knocked over group of soldiers, "are the Nazis!" Natasha's eyes shot up. So he remembers that much.

"And are we beating the Nazis?"

"Of course!" He yelled, scandalized at the thought that it could go any other way.

"Shhh," she said, her finger over her lips. "The others are still sleeping."

"Sorry," he whispered. She watched him play for a few more minutes. "I need a red guy," he said suddenly.

"What for?"

"For HYDRA!"

"Oh, so we beat the Nazis, and now we need to beat HYDRA?" Steve nodded as he rummaged through their rapidly filling toy box. Eventually he found an action figure with red hair – Natasha didn't know who it was supposed to be but he was big and muscular.

"This works," he said, holding the action figure up for her to inspect. She smiled and nodded her approval. He went back and stood over his "American" soldiers and threw the action figure down on them. "Ahhhh!" he stage whispered, "HYDRA!" The HYDRA figure was dragged all around the platoon, scattering everyone. He dropped the HYDRA figure and ran over to the toy box. He pulled out a Captain America action figure. Natasha smiled, Pepper had bought all of their action figures; even her own likeness was in that toy box. After she and Clint had explained simply what had happened Tony had been very excited about being a superhero. Pepper had taken him down to where he kept all of his outdated Iron Man suits. He had been very eager to use one, but he understood that he was too small for them. Along the same vein, Clint had flown Thor up to the top of the Statue of Liberty to retrieve Mjolnir. Even as a five year old he could lift something that the full-sized Hulk could not. It was currently on lock-down from Thor so that he could not hit anyone with it – and God forbid he figure out that he can fly with it.

"Don't worry, Captain America will save you!" Steve and the action figure swooped in and knocked that HYDRA action figure away. He then proceeded to smash the two action figures together until the HYDRA action figure was thrown onto the couch next to Natasha. "Victory!" He said jubilantly and Natasha cheered.

"How about breakfast?" She asked as the door to the boys' room opened. Tony exited mid-yawn and the other three followed within minutes. "Good morning boys," Natasha said when they came around the couch.

"Good morning Natasha!" Tony said, suddenly wide awake in the way that kids usually are.

"Are you guys hungry? Steve and I were just about to decide what to have."

"I'm starving!" Thor said, suddenly awake himself.

"Okay boys, let me just go take a really quick shower and I'll make you breakfast. Don't break anything." She stood up and made her way to the bathroom across from her room. Quickly undressing she stepped into the shower and turned the water onto hot. She simply stood there for a few minutes, enjoying the heat soaking into her sore muscles. She resolved to run more often. After a while she started washing her hair and body but stopped short when she heard the door open. She poked her head out and saw Clint.

"What are you doing?"

"Morning constitution," he replied through a yawn. Thankfully he didn't sit down. Natasha went back to scrubbing the conditioner in her hair. A few minutes later as Clint was finishing up brushing his teeth the fire alarm blared to life.

"Mr. Barton, Miss Romanoff, Mr. Stark has set fire to the couch. I have extinguished it, though I was unable to stop the couch from suffering some damage. However I assure you that it is minimal.

Natasha heard Clint groan. "I'll deal with it. . . What the hell did he do?" She heard him grumble as he shut the door behind himself.

-

Clint didn't question Natasha's sudden desire to take their relationship to the next level (the lever that Clint wanted so badly to be at). He was just happy that suddenly their desires lined up and he could finally show her how he felt about her – how he's felt for years. Well, at least he could show her in private.

He and Natasha were sitting in a conference room at SHIELD headquarters with Fury, Agent Hill, and the scientists in charge of trying to fix the boys.

It had been five weeks since Loki had changed them all. Clint didn't follow much of what they were saying, but it sounded like they weren't any closer to finding a solution than they were five weeks ago. It looked like Natasha was following, so he'd have her explain it to him later.

They had been called by Fury very short-notice – thirty minutes before their impromptu meeting had started. Luckily their new HQ wasn't far from Stark Tower. It normally wouldn't have been a problem on a Saturday, except that Pepper had gone on a business trip and wouldn't be back for a few days. So, Fury had called and told them that their babysitter was on the way.

Apparently, Peter Parker had just become as associate of SHIELD's – another superhero recruit – and had been itching for something to do. Clint had laughed hysterically – Peter had wanted to join the Avengers, not babysit them. Nevertheless, when Peter's initial shock at his "assignment" had worn off (because Fury had just told him to go to Stark Tower, not why) he had agreed to watch the boys while Natasha and Clint went to their meeting.

After the meeting was over Fury asked Clint and Natasha to stay behind.

"How is everything going?" He asked.

"Everything is just fine, Director," Natasha replied. Clint nodded, everything had been fine. Bruce hadn't had an episode recently, the boys got along, neither of them felt like killing any of them. Of course, it would be even better if they didn't throw little temper tantrums when they didn't get what they wanted or wake Clint up at six in the morning most days.

"I wanted to talk to you about Loki."

"What about him, sir?" Clint said, his brow furrowing slightly.

"When we do figure out how to make the Avengers adults again, we plan on leaving Loki at his present age." Clint's eyebrows shot up. He had just thought about this, and had dismissed it. Didn't Fury see the flaws?

"Sir, with all due respect that's a bad idea."

"Oh really, Agent Barton, why is that?" He said, a look in his eye that told Clint he was treading in dangerous waters.

"Well, for one we don't know if he is going to age like a human, he could be three for fifty years for all we know." He forced himself to stop there, not wanting to push too far at the beginning.

"We have thought about that. But we believe that it is best for the world if he stays that way. He can't cause too much trouble as a child, and we can raise him to be good-"

"Raise him to be a soldier, you mean."

"Barton, this is not open to your input. I didn't say we think we should do this, I said we plan on doing it, your opinion is not necessary."

"Then why tell us, sir?" Clint didn't know why he was so angry all the sudden, and when he glanced at Natasha he saw that she, too, was staring at him with anger in her eyes.

"Because you are directly involved, and I was going to ask you and Agent Romanoff to take care of him. He knows you and he trusts you, I assume, and you two can raise him into a good little SHIELD agent like you. Take some time to think it over. That's all I need from you now, you two can go."

Clint nodded curtly to Fury and walked out, hoping that Natasha was following. Thankfully, she did.

When they reached the car ten minutes later it was almost six o'clock. Clint had pushed Fury's suggestion to the edge of his mind – a problem to be dealt with later, and suggested they go out to eat since they hadn't received a call from Peter Parker frantically begging them to return.

"I feel like having Greek food," Natasha said when Clint inquired as to where she wanted to go.

"That sounds good, there's a place not too far from home." They drove to the restaurant; it was small, but fairly well known so there were a lot of people there. They parked a few blocks away and walked, shoulders touching but not holding hands to the restaurant.

"Just the two this evening?" A petite blonde woman asked when Clint and Natasha walked up. Clint nodded. "And the name?"

"Barton," Clint replied.

"Alright, thank you, it'll probably be around fifteen to twenty minutes." Clint nodded again and he and Natasha went to wait outside – there were a lot of people in the waiting area.

There was a bench outside the door that was unoccupied so Clint quickly claimed it, stretching his arms out across its back. Natasha sat down next to him, crossing her legs.

"I hope the boys are okay," Natasha said after a few moments. It was the first time she had said anything about them since they left the meeting.

"I hope Peter's okay," Clint countered. "Tony and Thor can be a handful, and God forbid he tries to make Loki do something he doesn't want to do." Peter had been pretty unnerved to see Loki, but Natasha had explained about their limited and sometimes erratic memories of their lives so far.

It seemed that the bulk of their memories were from when they were actually young, except for Bruce, who remembered at least that he turned into the Hulk when he got angry and some of his techniques for staying calm. So far they had only had three episodes, two at the hands of Loki and one because Tony wouldn't leave him alone one morning when he was still tired and cranky.

Clint hoped they wouldn't have many more, he was a pain in the ass to calm down, and none of them helped Natasha's fear of the Hulk – not that she'd admit she had a fear, but Clint could see the look in her eyes each time. Clint hated seeing it.

"Remember when we had a mission in Greece?" He asked, changing the subject – at least for himself. Natasha smiled and looked over at him.

"That was a fun one." They had been tasked to take out an American national who had done something big and bad – Clint honestly couldn't remember the exact details. It had been tough to find him and even tougher to take him out, so afterwards Fury had given them each a week off; they had stayed in Greece for some rest and relaxation.

"The job was fun or the vacation was fun? I can never tell with you."

Natasha laughed, "Both were fun."

"Barton, party of two," Clint heard from inside. He and Natasha stood and made their way to be seated.

An hour later they were finishing their respective drinks, a glass of red wine for Natasha and a beer for Clint, and waiting for the check. Clint plucked up the courage and asked, "What do you think about Fury's request?"

Natasha looked up at him, she had been staring into space behind him. She pursed her lips and picked up her drink. She took a sip and put it back down. "Well, it's difficult. I'm inclined to do my duty, which is whatever SHIELD needs me to do, but at the same time I was awaiting the day when they're all back to normal and I can go back to my job. I mean, obviously things would be much different because we couldn't be constantly putting our lives at risk." She gulped down the rest of her wine. "I don't like it much at all, but if that's what my duty is then I'll do it."

"But when about Thor? What about Asgard? Surely they won't let us just keep him? I suppose Asgard might be willing to let him go, but Thor wouldn't. And I'd rather not get on his bad side." Clint forced himself to not get too heated, he took a gulp of his beer. He didn't want to argue, but he was irritated that no one saw the complications to SHIELD's plan that he saw – there was no way that Thor would leave Loki behind when he returned to Asgard. When he escaped from them the first time Thor had been very angry, and had ranted about how incompetent mortals are. He had later apologized and over the months had grown extremely fond of each Avenger. Even so, he remained extremely anxious over his brother's state of mind and was desperate to get him back to Asgard. He didn't say as much to Natasha, though. He'd save it for when they weren't in a crowded restaurant. So he changed the subject, and they talked peacefully until their check came.

It was about eleven when Clint and Natasha got back to Stark Tower. Clint hoped that all the boys were asleep, but he doubted it. When he voiced this concern Natasha agreed with him.

"We can barely get them down sometimes and they're used to us."

"True. But on the bright side, if they're still up now they'll sleep in tomorrow." Together they boarded the elevator and made their way up to the 80th floor. Clint opened the door mid-yawn and stopped.

He was greeted by the sight of Tony hanging by the back of his shirt from the ceiling by a thin whitish rope. Peter was sitting on the armchair playing with Steve, Bruce, and Thor. Loki was on the couch watching The Lion King again.

"Hi Clint!" Tony yelled when he saw him. "I can fly!" He tried to swing in a circle, but mostly ended up wigging, his shirt sliding up over his belly and it looked like he was dangerously close to slipping out of it. That didn't stop Clint from bursting into laughter. Natasha nudged him aside so she could see in, and her eyes went wide.

"Hey," Peter said standing up. "I hope you guys don't mind, he wouldn't leave Bruce alone and I was afraid of. . . yeah."

"How was everyone otherwise? Don't do that!" Natasha admonished. Clint, who was still snickering, had walked up to Tony and had given him a push.

"They were great, we had pizza for dinner – there's still some in the kitchen – and we watched 'Superman.'"

"WEEEE!"

"Clint stop pushing him! Could you please get him down?"

"Sure thing," Peter said. He walked over and plucked the super-strong web from off Tony's back, catching him swiftly and setting him on the floor.

After that Peter said goodbye to the boys and to Clint and Natasha, and left them to get the boys ready for bed. They were still excited from making a new friend but were rapidly fading. It wasn't long before all five were sound asleep.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Saturday came three days later and Natasha awoke to Steve, Tony, and Thor jumping on the end of her bed. She saw up and rubbed her eyes.

"Morning guys," she said.

"ZOO!" They all chorused.

"Oh yeah..." Today was the day that they had promised they would take the boys to the Central Park Zoo. "Clint, wake up."

"Mmf," he replied, burying his face further into his pillow.

"JARVIS, what time is it?"

"Seven fifteen, Miss Romanoff."

"Come on Clint, let's get a move on. Boys, jump on Clint so he wakes up." They happily complied and Clint was sitting up a few seconds later.

"Alright, I'm up, I'm up."

Natasha got out of bed, thankful that she and Clint had slept in pajamas instead of going commando together.

"Why don't you boys go get dressed in shorts and t-shirts, and then we'll have breakfast? Tell Bruce and Loki to get dressed too, please."

The morning went by quickly, the boys all excited to go see the animals at the zoo – even Bruce was showing excitement, though it was rather subdued in comparison to the others. At breakfast Pepper was telling the boys about the animals and exhibits that they could go see. Loki and Thor had utterly confused looks on their faces when Pepper told them about bears and whales and monkeys, by which Natasha thought it was safe to bet that there were different animals on Asgard. The boys were most enthusiastic when Pepper told them about the "Children's Zoo" which was really just a petting zoo and aviary where kids could go and pet various animals and look at birds. She thought it was nice.

Truth be told, she was excited herself. She had never been to a zoo before, her own limited childhood not affording any time or opportunity to go. She just hoped that she could enjoy herself – when she had called Fury to get the OK he had told her that he would send several agents to follow them at a distance to make sure that nothing went wrong she was a little relieved, but she still couldn't help feeling paranoid.

At nine o'clock Natasha made sure that all the boys had their clothes on straight – Thor had a tendency to wear his backwards or inside out – and that their shoes were on correctly. When that was done she told everyone to run and grab a jacket (just in case) which she then rolled up and put in Clint's backpack that also carried water bottles and sandwiches for lunch. At nine fifteen they were completely ready to go.

Despite the fact that they arrived ten minutes before the park opened the parking lot was still packed. Thankfully, though, Clint was able to find a spot not too far from the entrance. They all piled out, the boys took the proffered hand of the adult nearest them and they made their way to the entrance.

The line was rather long, but went quickly once they opened and people started entering. "Good morning. Three adults, five children, all for the Total Experience." Clint said when they made it to the front. The Total Experience passes included the main park, the Children's Zoo, and a ticket for the 4-D theater.

"That'll be $119," the older man behind the counter said, smiling down at the kids. Natasha thought he looked vaguely creepy. Clint handed over the credit card that Pepper had gotten in his name that was linked to Tony's account – with the explicit command not to go crazy, "because when Tony is fixed he will kill you if you spend all of his money," Pepper had told him. The man handed over three blue wristbands, and five orange ones and the group moved into the park. They reached an empty bench a moment later and Natasha took the wristbands from Clint and sat down, "Come here guys, you need to wear these." The boys crowded around her, and she could tell that they were suppressing the urge to run around and look at everything –Tony, Thor and Steve were at the very least, while Loki and Bruce seemed more in awe. Even just in the circular area that immediately followed the entrance there were huge trees surrounding them. There was a pathway straight behind the entrance and according to Pepper, who was trying to memorize the map as quickly as possible, it led to the "Temperate Territory" where they kept the monkeys.

Once she got all the wristbands on the boys, Clint included, she addressed the group. "Alright guys, remember what we talked about. You do not go off alone, if you want to go see something you must take an adult with you. And above all, do not go with anyone that is not Clint, Pepper, or me, okay? Even if they say that we asked them to bring you to us. Tell me that you understand." They all nodded and chorused "I understand."

"Alright! Who wants to see some animals?" Clint said, bringing the mood back up after Natasha's warning.

"Yeah!" They all cried. Natasha stood up and followed the group as they headed into the first exhibit.

Natasha had always liked animals, but had never really put much thought into them. She dealt with people in her job and never really came into contact with animals.

Seeing them didn't stir a deep and hidden love for them in her heart, but she did get a kick out of seeing the boys' reactions. Thor and Loki were confused and Pepper was trying to explain that humans and monkeys are related distantly. Natasha laughed out loud when Thor proclaimed "I'm glad that I'm not related to a monkey, they're ugly!" Tony was trying to get one of the snow monkeys to come over to the edge of the enclosure, and Steve was standing off alone behind them, away from the enclosure.

"Hey buddy, come look," Clint said, beckoning him to come closer. Steve took a few steps up and huddled behind Clint, clutching his jeans and looking around at the monkeys. "Are you scared?" Steve nodded.

Natasha put her hand on Steve's head and he looked up at her. "Don't worry they can't get out, the glass keeps them in."

"Are you sure?" Steve said, Natasha nodded. He uncertainly let go of Clint's pant's leg and stepped up to the glass next to Tony. Pepper was off to the side with Bruce, listening to him read her the paragraph of information on the snow monkeys inside the enclosure.

They walked around the circular enclosure looking at all the monkeys, Steve warmed up to them and soon was right alongside Tony trying to get the monkeys to come closer. After a while they grew tired of watching the monkeys. Steve took Natasha's hand and dragged her and Tony to the next enclosure, which Natasha saw was red pandas. She had never heard of a red panda, and quickly read the paragraph about them to Steve and Tony.

"It says to look up, since they like the trees," she said, and all three looked up. Thor arrived dragging Loki by his hand with Clint right behind them and they looked up alongside Steve and Tony. Pepper and Bruce joined them a minute later; Bruce wanted to look at everything and Pepper was perfectly content with walking slowly around with him as he took everything in.

"Natasha I see one!" Steve cried, excited. He jumped up and down pointing up in a tree. Natasha picked him up so that he could see better and located the tree branch he pointed at. All five boys, Bruce had rushed over at Steve's cry, looked up to where he was pointing. A red panda was laying on a branch, sleeping.

"It's so cute!" Pepper said, picking Bruce up so he could get a better look.

"It's so weird," Loki said, and Thor agreed.

After locating the other three red pandas that were in the enclosure, they moved on down the path. They stopped at the turtles, but only lingered long enough for Loki and Thor to get a good look, as the others weren't interested. There were also birds but either the boys didn't notice or didn't care about them enough to stop.

They came up to the Children's Zoo next. There was a gate at which everyone had to show their wristbands to indicate that they had paid for entrance, and once they got in they had to stop for a second to take it all in. There were goats and llamas and sheep off to one side each in their own little enclosure, there were ponies in a small corral that it seemed like kids could ride in circles. There was also an area that had a few giant turtle shells that kids could climb in and on. Natasha had a sudden urge to get a picture of all five boys in the biggest one – whether for memories or blackmail she wasn't sure yet.

Natasha, put Steve down and asked the boys, "What do you guys want to do first?"

"Let's go pet the llamas!" Steve said.

"What's a llama?" Loki asked.

"I'll show you!" Steve took Loki's hand and started to pull him away before stopping, grabbing Clint's hand as well (he was closest) and dragging them both over to the llamas.

"Good boy," Natasha heard Pepper say. "I'll bet his mama had an easy time with him."

"Probably," Natasha agreed. She and Pepper followed Thor, Tony, and Bruce over to the goats. The three boys listened patiently – well, as patiently as Tony and Thor could – to the zookeeper's speech about petting their heads around their horns or their backs and not putting their hands in the goat's mouths. As they pet the goat Thor was telling Tony and Bruce about an animal on Asgard that looked similar but with feathers and longer horns – Natasha thought it sounded freaky but Thor went on about how they were his friend's favorite. When they got bored of the goats they continued on, making their way around the petting zoo. They split in half when Bruce wanted to stay and listen to a presentation that a woman working with a potbellied pig was giving, and Tony and Thor wanted to go see the cow. Pepper went with Tony and Thor and Clint, Steve, and Loki caught up with them.

"Llamas are weird," Loki told her. "What are these?"

"They're called pigs," Natasha said. She picked him up so that he could see over the group of kids in front of him. The petting zoo was starting to fill up as time went on. Natasha checked her phone and saw that it was eleven thirty. "We should go find a place to eat after we're done here," She said to Clint.

"Good idea, Steve was complaining about being hungry while we were looking at the alpacas. There's gotta be a picnic area or something somewhere." They stayed at the pigs for a few more minutes before Natasha heart Thor exclaim "What is that?" Natasha turned around and she and Loki looked around at Thor.

"Whoa!" Loki exclaimed, and wiggled until Natasha put him down. He ran over to his brother and they both stared at the peacock in almost exaggerated curiosity.

Clint laughed, "I guess they are freaky-ass birds, even if you've seen them before. Over there," he pointed to the peacock for. After the peacock Natasha gathered all five together and told them to go sit in and on the giant turtle shell. Eventually they all got situated – Thor standing on top, Tony and Bruce laying inside, and Loki and Steve sitting on top of the smaller one next to it – and Natasha took a picture with her phone. She decided it was for both memories and blackmail, and when she said so Clint demanded that she send it to him as well. She, Clint, and Pepper let the boys play on the spider-web-like jungle gym for a little while afterwards. There was an empty bench that they quickly claimed to sit and watch the boys.

"It's nice to get out of the tower," Clint said, stretching his arm across the back of the bench, behind Natasha's head.

"It's nice to get out for something other than work!" Pepper replied. "And I'm glad that they get a chance to stretch their legs. They've been cooped up for so long." Natasha nodded, she could tell that the boys had tons and tons of energy, running around the jungle gym like mad men – even Bruce was running around until it looked like he had started breathing too hard, and Natasha called for him to calm down a little; he looked over and yelled "okay!" and proceeded to climb to the top of the jungle gym and rest there.

Natasha watched Loki as he ran around, playing with Thor and the other boys. Her brain kept coming back to Fury's request, and while she could see why Clint disagreed, she could also see why Fury wanted it to be that way. Who's to say that if they let Loki go back to Asgard with Thor as an adult he wouldn't come back, stronger and with a bigger army? There wasn't even any guarantee that they could get him to go back with Thor, since he had escaped each time the Avengers tried to capture him. If they left him like this Natasha could make sure that he didn't become that way again – he would have the same kind of childhood as she had, filled with training and discipline. Though, she mused, he would be treated a little better than she had been. The red room [proper noun? Red Room?] hadn't been kind to her, and in the end she had defected – obviously there had been little loyalty instilled into her. And his magic and shape-shifting would be an invaluable asset to SHIELD and the United States. He had the potential of being the best spy in the world.

But at the same time, she understood Clint's perspective. Thor had told them that this whole mess had started when Loki had learned that he was adopted, and that to him his whole life had been a lie up. The exact same thing could happen, and he could do the exact same thing. Thor said that he had tried to destroy his home world – Jotunheim, he called it. What if he lost it and tried to destroy earth? Thor himself was a problem, as there was no way that he would allow SHIELD to keep Loki.

Suddenly Natasha was hit with a thought that she wouldn't think about if she could help it. I can't have kids. I never really wanted any, but I'm infertile. This could be the only chance that I have to. . . Natasha pursed her lips slightly. She can't think like that. He wouldn't be her child, she reminded herself. He would be her ward, her mission.

-

Clint looked over at Natasha and saw that she was deep in thought, her eyes on the boys, but not really seeing them. He wondered if she was thinking about Loki and Fury's "mission" for them, as he had been. They hadn't really sat down and talked about it together. Thankfully they still had an indefinite amount of time to come up with their answer.

Clint checked his watch and saw that it was almost noon. "Hey guys," he called, and when they looked he gestured for them to come to where they were sitting. "Are you guys hungry?" He asked, they all nodded.

"There's an area not too far with a bunch of picnic tables," Pepper said, standing up. "We just have to go through the reptile house and it's right on the other side. Tony spotted it before she could point it out.

"There's snakes there!" Tony yelled enthusiastically, pointing at the sign. He immediately took off but was quickly caught by Natasha, who grabbed his wrist. "Remember, we are staying together while we're here," she admonished. Tony kept on pulling towards the reptile house, somewhat dragging Natasha after him. Thor was no longer standing next to his brother, but was jumping around Natasha too. Steve and Bruce were standing near Clint, but he could tell that they wanted to see the snakes too, so Pepper took their hands and started with them after Natasha and Tony.

Loki, however, was nowhere to be found. Clint whirled around, panic taking hold for a moment as he realized the implications if the child trickster disappeared. It subsided when he saw Loki standing near the ponies, standing a few feet from the picket fence, staring at the creature within.

"You go ahead and bring them in, I'll catch up in a minute. I think Loki wants to pet the horses," he called to Pepper. She nodded, and followed Natasha, Tony, and Thor while she held onto Steve and Bruce's hands.

Clint walked up behind Loki and asked, "So, you like ponies then?" Loki didn't look up at Clint, and shrugged.

"Maybe," he answered, sounding confused. Clint raised an eyebrow and picked him up. Loki's eyebrows were drawn in a puzzled expression.

"I can't remember," he said, still staring at the miniature horse, one hand on Clint's shoulder, the other grabbing the fringe of his own shirt.

Clint walked closer to the pony, saying, "Well how about you pet it then? Do you want to –" he was cut off as Loki flung both arms around his neck and clutched tight, shaking his head vehemently.

"No no no no!" he dug his head into Clint's chest.

"Whoa, slow down there, buddy! We don't have to touch it if you don't want!" He backed away from the enclosure, patting Loki's back. "How about we go and join Natasha and Thor instead, okay?" Loki withdrew his head from Clint's chest, and nodded at him. As Clint turned and walked towards the reptile house, he couldn't help but notice Loki's continued stare over his shoulder at the ponies behind them, nor could he help but wonder why Loki was so scared and captivated by the sight.

They moved through the reptile house quickly due to the boys' hunger overpowering their curiosity. It was a little harder to drag Natasha away from the spiders – he remembered that she had always had an intense fascination with them, hence her codename.

Soon enough, however, they were all seated around a picnic table, eating the sandwiches that Pepper and Natasha had fixed.

"Did we bring sunscreen?" Pepper asked, pushing Steve's hair off of his forehead and seeing that his face was starting to get pink. Clint looked at all the boys and noticed that they all – save Tony and Thor, who just looked tanner – had pink faces. Loki especially looked like the heat was getting to him a little more than the others, even though it was September and not very hot at all.

"Yes, I put some in the backpack," Natasha said, grabbing the bag from next to Clint and pulling out a tube of sunscreen. She handed it to Pepper, who stood up and stepped out from the bench. She asked the Bruce and Steve, who were finished with their sandwiches, to stand up so that she could cover their arms, faces and necks with a thick layer of the stuff. She got Loki next, then Thor, and finally, and despite his arguing, she lathered Tony up as well. Then she put some on herself and handed the tube to Natasha, who put some on her face, and then she gave it to Clint. He was about to put it away but Natasha gave him a look that clearly said 'I'm not taking care of you if you get sunburnt' and he relented and put some on his face and the back of his neck. Tony, who was still standing on the bench next to Pepper, put his hand on her head to get her attention.

"What's next, Pepper?" He asked. Pepper put her arm around his waist and pulled him into her lap.

"Well, that way," she pointed, "is the Polar Circle, which has the penguins and the polar bears!"

"What's a penguin?" Thor asked after chugging down the rest of his water bottle.

At that exact moment, one of the pigeons that had been flying around looking for food pooped, and hit Thor right on his shoulder. Loki was, unsurprisingly, the first to laugh, and the rest followed. Pepper tried not to, but let loose a giggle or two and Natasha smiled. Clint laughed, but stopped when Thor's face scrunched up and he started to cry. It wasn't too loud, but Clint could tell that he was embarrassed and grossed out. Oh god, don't puke. Please don't puke, Clint thought.

Loki had also stopped laughing, and had a strange look on his face, almost like he might start crying as well. Clint, having grown up with an older brother, guessed that seeing Thor – his bigger, tougher, older brother – cry was unsettling. He remembered that whenever Barney was upset, Clint would get distressed, and until Barney had calmed down Clint couldn't either. Natasha grabbed the napkin that she hadn't used, poured some water on it, and stood to go over to Thor and wipe his shoulder off. Thor stopped crying once the bird poop was off his shoulder, but Loki still looked uneasy.

"Ugh, this stuff won't come off all the way. Come on Thor, we'll get you a new shirt from the gift shop." She lifted him off of the bench, and set him down on the ground.

"I wanna come!" Loki said, clambering out of the picnic table.

"We'll catch up with you guys, go ahead." Natasha walked away with Thor and Loki in tow.

When they were gone Clint let out the last bit of laughter that had bubbled up. "Poor kid, but that was funny as hell. Are you guys ready to go see the polar bears?" Tony, Steve, and Bruce all chorused yes, and they gathered the trash, threw it away, and headed to the Polar Circle.

"Clint," Steve tugged on his shirt. He looked down.

"What's up buddy?"

"Can I ride on your shoulders?" Steve had had a thing about being tall, Clint noticed. He personally thought it was because before he was injected with the super-soldier serum Steve was a shrimp, and after the serum he had grown a foot and didn't like being short again. Mostly it just involved him sitting on the top of the couch instead of the seats, or piggybacking on Clint or Natasha whenever he could.

"Sure buddy," Clint picked him up and put him on his shoulders, his hands securely around Steve's ankles to make sure he stayed in place. When they reached the polar bear enclosure Clint was extremely pleased to see that the bear was playing with a big rubber ball, instead of just sleeping.

"It's HUGE!" Tony cried, all but pressing his face against the glass. They all shouted with excitement when a second bear walked out from behind a wall in the middle of the enclosure.

"Their names are Gus and Ida, this says," Pepper said from a little ways off to the side, reading the plaque.

"I wonder which one's which," Bruce asked, his face nearly pressed against the glass right alongside Tony. Steve had his fingers clenched in Clint's hair, and he was fairly bouncing up and down on Clint's shoulders. Just then one of the bears lumbered into the pool. The other followed a few seconds after.

"Let's go below so we can see them swimming around," Clint said, turning and locating the stairs. Pepper took Bruce and Tony by the hands and followed. There were quite a few people below, just as there had been above, but Tony wormed his way to the front with Bruce following right behind. Steve, on Clint's shoulders, could see above everyone. They watched as the two bears swam around the tank, chasing each other.

"Woooow," Clint heart Steve say. A few minutes later Clint felt his phone go off in his pocket. He got it out and flipped it open. (1) New Text from Tasha. He opened it and read: Where are you? He quickly typed back: Polar bears, below deck, and hit send. A few minutes later Clint felt a hand on his back, and looked to the left and saw Natasha standing next to him.

"How's Thor?" He asked, craning his neck and seeing Thor and Loki pushing forward so that they were with Tony and Bruce.

"He's fine, he got a shirt that says "Central Park Zoo" with a snow leopard on it and he felt better. Little kids, their turn around time is amazing. I couldn't imagine switching emotions that fast." She glanced at the swimming polar bears. "Damn those bears are huge," she said, standing on tip toes to get a better look. She was pretty short, especially when compared to any of her teammates.

"Let's try to move closer," Clint said. He took her hand and they snaked through the crowd, Steve's hands still clenched in his hair. They got a little closer and joined Pepper and the other boys near the glass.

"They're so big," Natasha said.

"Have you never seen one before?" Clint asked, incredulous.

"Well, on TV every now and then but never in person. I've never been to a zoo before now." Clint's eyebrows went up, but he bit back his comment about having a deprived childhood; she had actually had a deprived childhood and she didn't like talking about it, not even to Clint.

"This is only my second or third time, I think," Clint said instead. "I think my parents took Barney and I once or twice before they died."

"Who's Barney?" Steve asked, and Clint looked up to see Steve's face upside down.

"Barney is my older brother."

"I always wanted a brother," Steve said, sitting back up. Clint's eyes widened [? Why what]and he looked down at Natasha. He had almost sounded like himself again there for a second.

"Well, you've got your team now. Me, Natasha, Tony, Bruce, and Thor," he said, squeezing Steve's left ankle; his right hand was still wrapped around Natasha's.

After a few more minutes the boys latched onto the nearest adult and started pulling them towards the next exhibit – even though they had no clue was it was. Once they were back upstairs Pepper pointed them towards the snow leopard exhibit.

"Like the one on my shirt?" Thor asked excitedly. Natasha nodded, and Thor pulled her and Loki, who was holding her other hand, harder so they could get there faster.

"Can I get down?" Steve asked Clint, who lifted him and set him down. He took Clint's hand and pulled him to where everyone else was.

The boys ooh'd and aah'd over the big cats for a little while. Clint could just tell that Loki was archiving the different animals into that mischievous little mind of his, and he guessed that he would probably wake up in the morning with a snow leopard curled up on his stomach. Or his head. Both had happened.

From there they moved onto the penguins and the sea lions and Thor finally got his question answered. He decided that he didn't like penguins; Loki, however, loved them.

By the time they were finished with the last exhibit it was four o'clock and the boys were starting to get tired and a little cranky. Thor and Loki bickered constantly, and finally Clint had to take Loki by one hand and Natasha Thor's so that they couldn't fight. Pepper was carrying Tony, who was tired but still talking non-stop. Steve was holding onto Natasha's other hand and rubbing his eyes every now and then. Bruce, however, hadn't exerted nearly as much energy running around as the other boys was perfectly alert and awake, still looking around trying to catch everything. Tony really wanted a whale stuffed animal but Pepper told him no, that he didn't need another toy, which meant he had a sour look on his face the whole way home. At least he didn't throw a temper tantrum, Clint thought.

When they got home it was nearly five o'clock and none of the adults felt like cooking. Pepper asked JARVIS to order three large cheese, pepperoni, and supreme pizzas, and after thirty more minutes they ate.

A few hours later all five boys were bathed, in their pajamas – Tony had given only minimal naked chase tonight – and in bed.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Natasha woke, as she had several times in the past few weeks, to someone whispering her name and poking her. If it's Clint, I'll kill him, she thought blearily as she struggled to wake up. After a second she recognized Steve's tiny voice.

"Natasha?" He whispered again.

"What is it buddy?" She replied, her voice thick with sleep. She was on her side facing him so she propped herself up on her elbow, trying not to jostle the bed too much and wake Clint; though, he slept rather deeply, so she didn't worry too much.

"I threw up."

Natasha stifled a groan, and sat up all the way.

"In bed?" She thought she knew the answer, but she prayed it wasn't true – they can't be getting sick, she pleaded to herself.

"Uh-huh." Natasha quietly got out of bed, picked Steve up, careful to avoid the vomit on his shirt and face, and exited her room.

"JARVIS, what time is it?" She asked once she had closed her door.

"Two thirty-seven, Miss Romanoff," the AI replied, its voice much quieter than usual due to the hour. Natasha went across the hall to her bathroom and set Steve down on the counter.

"What hurts?" She asked, pulling his shirt off and putting it in the sink. She wet the hand-towel that was hanging on the wall to her left and wiped his face and neck off.

"My tummy," he rubbed his eyes, and Natasha thought it looked like he'd been crying. She wondered how long he had lain there before he had gotten up to wake her.

"Do you feel like you're going to throw up again?" He shook his head, much to her relief. "Are the others still asleep?" He nodded; she could tell that he was already starting to fall back asleep. She went to the medicine cabinet and found a bottle of Pepto Bismol and gave him about a half of a capful, which he obviously didn't like but took without complaint. Then she picked him back up and crossed the hall again. She lay him down on her side of the bed and kissed his forehead. "Go back to sleep Steve."

She made her way into the boys' room and thankfully they were all asleep and it was dark – save for the faint blue glowing of Tony's chest. She went to Steve's bed and even though she couldn't see Steve's vomit, she could smell it. She mechanically stripped the bed, balling up the sheets and blankets into one pile.

"Natasha?" She turned around and saw Bruce sitting up in his bed next to Steve's.

"Go back to sleep, it's not morning yet buddy." He laid back down and Natasha pulled his blanket back up over his chest, hoping that he'd fall right back asleep. She picked up the pile of sheets and blanket and took it back down the hall to the laundry room. She put the bundle in the high-tech washing machine; she remembered Steve's shirt in her sink and went to retrieve it, adding it to the machine. She quickly added the detergent and fabric softener and started the cycle.

After that was all finished she went back to her room and saw that Clint was still sleeping soundly on his side, while Steve had sprawled across what was usually her side of the bed. She didn't want to move him, so she got a blanket from the hall closet and went to the couch, falling back asleep almost instantly.

When she woke up again it was light outside, but faintly. Dawn. She lay there for a few more minutes, but decided eventually to go ahead and get up. The first thing she did was go and put Steve's sheets in the dryer. Then she went and checked on Steve. He was still sleeping, but he didn't look like he was sleeping very peacefully – curled up tightly and his eyes clenched shut. She went and squatted down next to the bed, rubbing Steve's back.

"Steve? Come on buddy, wake up. Let's get you some more medicine." He woke up slowly, and Natasha picked him up from her bed, letting him wrap his short legs around her waist and rest his head on her shoulder.

"My tummy still hurts," he said. "And my throat."

"I know buddy, I'm sorry." She set him down on the couch, and went to the medicine cabinet again, grabbing the children's Tylenol that Pepper had put in there for this exact occasion. She went back out to the living room and set the bottle down on the coffee table. She went to the kitchen and filled a cup with some cold water before going back to the living room. She went and knelt in front of Steve, and felt his forehead. It felt warm, and even Natasha, who had no real experience with illness or fevers, could tell that he felt too warm. Thankfully she knew what to do, even if she didn't get sick very often – if at all, ever. As she went to figure the correct dosage of Tylenol for someone as small as Steve he started coughing.

"Cover your mouth buddy," she said softly as she filled the cap with the amount recommended on the bottle. "Here you go, drink this." She handed him the tiny cup and he drank it, but made a face. "Hey, it can't be that bad," she said as he handed it back. She put a little of what was left behind on her finger and tasted it, finding it disgusting. She made a face for Steve's benefit. "Ok, it is. But it'll make you feel better, okay?" He nodded.

"Drink some water," she handed him the glass. He took a sip and tried to hand it back, but she shook her head, he didn't look happy about it but he drank more water. "Are you hungry?" She asked when she was satisfied with how much he had drank. He shook his head, and laid down on his side on the couch. Natasha stood up, grabbed the blanket she had been using and draped it over Steve. Then she retrieved the book she had been reading – Frankenstein by Mary Shelly – and sat down next to Steve, allowing him to readjust so that his head was resting on her lap. As she settled into reading her book she could hear Steve's breathing even out again and he fell back asleep. She hoped to god that the others hadn't also caught what Steve had – what she suspected was the flu. Though, she knew that with several children in the same house it was only a matter of time before they all got sick.

Sure enough, a few hours later Tony emerged from his room sniffling and coughing. He came around the couch and climbed up onto it, sitting down and leaning against the side of Natasha that Steve wasn't laying on. "I don't feel good," he moaned. Oh dear god, she thought. She allowed herself a single moment of panic before she locked it away and steeled herself for dealing with five sick kids. One of them must have picked it up at the zoo. . .

"Does your stomach hurt?" He nodded. "Did you throw up," he shook his head, thankfully. "Alright, could you hand me that bottle?" She asked him, not wanting to get up and jostle Steve just yet. He handed her the bottle of Tylenol and she poured the same dose for Tony, and when she gave it to him he made the same face that Steve had made. "I know it tastes bad, I'm sorry, but it'll make you feel better." He finished the glass of water that was still sitting on the coffee table. He went and grabbed the iPad that someone had left on the armchair, resettled himself against Natasha and started up a game. Natasha, thankful that she couldn't really get sick, went back to her book.

An hour later everyone was awake, and, just as she dreaded, all five boys were showing symptoms of the flu. When Pepper had entered the living room Tony had turned on full-pathetic-mode, garnering Pepper's full attention. Natasha had to hand it to him, he sure knew how to act completely pathetic. When Clint had woken up Natasha was still on the couch with Steve, Pepper was sitting in the armchair watching the news with Steve on her lap, his back to her chest, still playing on the iPad while Pepper absently stroked his hair. Bruce was playing with the toy trucks, and Loki was quietly reading Thor a child-version of "Treasure Island" – Natasha had given it to him because it had adventure in it and she thought he would like it, but discovered that he hadn't retained the ability to read. Luckily Loki had no problem reading at all, and read Thor anything that he wanted.

None of the boys had wanted breakfast, but Natasha made them eat some crackers and drink water – always drink more water.

-

At about four o'clock Natasha, who had been smothered by sick children all day, volunteered to run to the store and buy the boys some more crackers, as those had been the only thing that the boys would eat all day.

"Is there anything else you guys want?" She asked after she had gotten their attention.

"Ice cream!" Tony yelled before dissolving into a coughing fit.

"Don't hurt yourself, and no, ice cream will just make your stomach hurt more." Tony made a pouting face, but Natasha ignored it. She repeated her question, and none of the boys could supply anything that they wanted, and neither could Clint. "Alright, I'll be back in a little bit." She gave Clint a quick kiss before shutting the door and heading to the elevator.

It was a short walk to the convenience store two blocks away. She located the crackers and grabbed two of the big boxes of Saltine crackers.

"That'll be nine dollars and fifty cents." Natasha handed over a ten, told him to keep the change and grabbed the bag. She walked quickly back to the tower as thunder rumbled over the city. It started misting as she entered the lobby and she could see it pouring rain as the elevator doors closed in front of her.

When she made it back to the 80th floor it was quiet, though she wasn't surprised. None of the boys had had enough energy to be noisy all day. In fact, she was fairly sure that half of them were asleep.

She was wrong, however, because they were all gathered around the coffee table with Clint. They were playing a board game, and Natasha could read Sorry! in the center of the board. She'd never heard of it before, but she didn't often play board games. She went and put the crackers in the kitchen, hopefully if the boys wouldn't eat dinner, they'd at least eat some crackers. She went back to the living room and stopped next to the armchair were Pepper was sitting alternately reading a book and watching the boys.

"What should they have for dinner so that they won't have trouble keeping it down and that won't be too painful if they spew it back up later?"

"Soft foods," she replied, dog-earing her page. She stood up and walked with Natasha into the kitchen. "We've got mashed potatoes, or soup, probably soup, huh? Or spaghetti-o's." She opened one of the cabinets and surveyed the array of canned goods. Natasha went back to the doorway to the kitchen.

"Do you guys want soup or spaghetti-o's?" Thor was the only one to answer, with an enthusiastic "spaghetti-o's!" The others replied that they weren't hungry. Natasha crossed her arms. "You guys have to eat dinner."

A few of the made faces, but sure enough they each agreed with Thor that they wanted spaghetti-o's. The next twenty minutes was spent cooking three cans of spaghetti-o's on the stove and filling five bowls full. Clint claimed that he wasn't hungry yet and would eat something later. Natasha made herself and Pepper soup, and together they gathered around the table and tried to coax five sick kids to eat some dinner. It was a struggle but eventually they had all eaten at least half of the noodles in their bowl. Clint and Natasha took the bowls to the kitchen and put them in the sink to be dealt with later, and Clint grabbed himself another bowl and pulled ice cream that Natasha hadn't even known about out of the freezer.

"You can not have that for dinner," Natasha told him. He had just smirked at her.

"Watch me."

"Such a bad example," she muttered. Clint took his bowl into the kitchen but didn't sit down at the table so the boys didn't see what he was eating. Pepper was trying to clean the spaghetti sauce out of Tony's hair – how he managed to get it there was a mystery but not altogether surprising for him. They had had macaroni a few weeks ago and some of it managed to hit the ceiling.

-

Clint was extremely happy when they had gotten all five boys in bed later that night. They had medicated them, made sure that each of them knew that there was a large Tupperware bowl right next to their beds in case they needed to throw up and that it was okay to wake Clint or Natasha up if they needed their sheets changed again.

He could definitely say that he liked kids, but he did not like them when they were sick. They got clingy, and whiny.

At eleven o'clock he was laying on his side with his arm around Natasha's torso, his other arm under her neck. He couldn't sleep. He kept thinking about Loki and what was to become of him. He still stood by his claim that it was a bad idea to leave him like this, but he and Natasha hadn't talked about it together yet, and he knew that she was torn.

"Tasha?" He whispered against the back of her neck. Her hair, which had grown considerably since the Avengers Initiative a year ago, was tickling his nose.

"Mm?" She hummed in reply.

"What do you want?" She didn't ask for clarification, and he didn't need to be any clearer than that. They both had the subject on their minds all the time, especially at night before they went to sleep. He could imagine Loki's sleeping form in his mind's eye right now, looking completely innocent and so very young. Defenseless.

After a moment she replied, "I don't know. Part of me wants to listen to orders, the other part wants what's best for a man that may or may not have had any choice in his actions. . . And part of me, deep, deep. . ." She paused and took a breath, "deep down doesn't mind this quiet life." Clint was glad that she couldn't see the smile that spread across his lips. She rolled over so that she was facing Clint. There was only the light from the various electronics on the opposite wall that were never used to illuminate the room, so they could just barely make out each other's faces. "I'm a lot older than I look," she rested her forehead against Clint's as he nodded. He knew how old she was, she was born around the same time as Steve. She was also given a serum very similar to Steve's that made her body age at a much slower rate. "I've been going a long time." She didn't say any more for a long while.

"Well. . ." Clint started softly, "even if Loki is returned to Asgard, that doesn't mean that you can't stop whenever you want. We can stop, if that's what you want." He took a deep breath. "I just want you to be happy." Their foreheads were still pressed together and Natasha leaned forward so that she could kiss Clint. "I love you," he breathed. She stopped for a second, took a deep breath, and kissed him again, deeper and with just a little more urgency this time. She didn't say it back, but Clint could tell that she felt the same way. She just didn't know how to express it.

It took three days before the boys all felt one hundred percent better. But, as it would happen, Clint woke up that morning feeling like death warmed over. Luckily, he had five boys who were desperate for him to be better so that he could rough-house with them again, and they were surprisingly accommodating. They were extra quiet (comparatively) so that he could sleep, and they brought him food when he asked.

Natasha was also accommodating, mostly just in that she would cuddle him whenever he wanted.

Two days, and almost a full bottle of Tylenol later, he felt better.

They celebrated everyone's return to health – and Pepper's ability to avoid getting sick at all – with an afternoon trip to the park. It was fairly empty today - a Thursday, but Clint liked it better that way. He didn't feel like he had to constantly have an eye on all five boys at once, and Natasha was even able to relax a little. She even looked happy, he remarked from where he was pushing both Bruce and Tony on the swings.

"Higher!" Loki called, and Clint looked to his right to see Thor putting everything he had – which was a lot considering his five-year-old frame, into pushing Loki higher and higher on the swing.

"Careful Thor!" Natasha called. She stood up suddenly and yelled, "Loki you had better not be doing what I think you're do- oh yes you are." Suddenly Loki vanished from the swing and Clint could see a squirrel flying through the air towards where Natasha was standing in front of the park bench. He flew straight to her and Natasha caught him against her chest. Clint and Thor laughed as Natasha held the Loki-squirrel up in front of her face and admonished him. "You could have gotten hurt!"

"I want to do that!" Tony yelled, but before he could jump off Clint caught the swing as he came back and said, "oh no you aren't. Go play somewhere else." Tony stuck his tongue out at Clint but did as he said and went to the jungle gym where Steve was swinging.

It was then that Clint noticed a woman and her daughter off to the side staring at Natasha and the squirrel that she was still holding. Clint pushed Bruce one more time and went to sit next to where Natasha had sat back down. Loki hadn't changed back and was enjoying sitting on Natasha's lap as she scratched a finger over his small back.

"You're the Avengers, aren't you?" The woman said after her daughter had run off to play. Clint looked at her, assessing. She was older, probably early forties, and looked harmless enough.

"Yeah, we are," he replied amiably.

"And that," she pointed at the Loki-squirrel, "is Loki, that guy that destroyed Manhattan last year?" Clint put his sunglasses on top of his head.

"Yes it is." The woman opened her mouth again, but closed it and sat down on the bench a few feet away from Clint and Natasha's. Clint looked at the playground again, quickly locating all four boys. Bruce was still swinging, though definitely not as high as when Clint was pushing him, and the woman's daughter was swinging next to him. Steve and Tony were going down the double slide, probably racing, and Thor was hitting the tether ball around the pole so fast that Clint hoped it didn't hit him in the head and knock him out. But at the same time he hoped it did, because it would be hilarious.

"Jamie, that's my daughter," the woman said after a few minutes, breaking their silence; Clint and Natasha looked over at her. "She always wanted to meet the Avengers. Little does she know, eh?" The woman chuckled. "I'm Susan, by the way."

"Clint," he replied, leaning over and shaking her hand. Natasha introduced herself, but didn't move to get up to shake her hand. Clint looked and saw that Loki had morphed into a kitten and was curled up on Natasha's lap, fast asleep. "We come to the park and he falls asleep, what the fuck," Clint muttered to her. She grinned and shook her head.

Clint made small talk with Susan for a little while as they watched the boys and her daughter play together. They started playing tag, and their squeals coaxed Loki back into his own skin so that he could participate as well.

-

They were almost done with dinner when JARVIS's voice interrupted an epic – and entirely fabricated, Clint suspected - story Loki was telling about Asgard. "Agent Coulson is in the lobby."

"Tell him to come up," Natasha replied.

After he was stabbed on the helicarrier, it had been touch and go for about a week. Coulson had lost a lot of blood and the wound was big and very bad. Any other man may have died, but Coulson pulled through, and after six months of rest and physical therapy for his left arm and shoulder he was back on light duty. Now, one year after his injury he was back on full duty, doing anything and everything SHIELD needed him to do.

When he arrived to the 80th floor he knocked once, but then opened the door and stepped in.

"Hey Phil," Pepper said standing up and going to give him a hug. She and Tony had visited him a lot in the hospital and they had gotten to be pretty close friends.

"Hello Pepper," he replied, pulling back from her hug with a smile. He looked over at the table and greeted Natasha and Clint.

"Are you hungry? We've got leftover chicken," Natasha said gesturing to the open chair at the end of the table.

"No, thank you, I ate dinner earlier. Hey guys, you probably don't remember me," he said addressing the boys, all looked at him with vaguely confused looks as they chewed their food; Tony was the only exception and he cried "Agent!" through a mouthful of chicken.

"Close, but I'm Phil," he said, smiling and ruffling Tony's hair.

Clint eyed Loki, who had put down his fork and was looking warily at Coulson, as if he was feeling something that confused him – perhaps deep-seated guilt? Clint frowned. That certainly seemed to confirm the theory of Loki's mind control forcing him to stab Coulson, as well as the other atrocities that he committed when he first arrived on Earth. He looked at Coulson, who was still smiling, but looking at Loki with something that Clint couldn't quite figure out in his eyes. He almost looked forgiving.

A bit later after Pepper and Natasha put the boys to bed, Coulson asked Pepper if he could talk to Clint and Natasha alone, and she went to Tony's office to finish some paperwork.

"Well aren't they adorable," Coulson said, sitting back in his chair, sipping his diet coke.

"You say that now, but you didn't see them all with the flu at the same time," Clint replied as he poured himself a generous serving of rum and ginger ale.

"What brings you here?" Natasha asked, leaning her elbows on the table. Clint sat down next to her, swirling his drink around in his glass to mix it.

"Well, I wanted to check up on you two. I know this hasn't been easy on either of you, but it seems like you've been doing a pretty good job." Coulson paused. "I also wanted to talk to you about Fury's mission for you." Clint frowned and glanced at Natasha, her face was still neutral. "The scientists working on this case aren't close to figuring out a solution – frankly they don't even really know what to look for. Magic is entirely out of our understanding. But Fury wants to make sure that everything is in order just in case there's a breakthrough, and if you two don't agree to keep Loki afterwards, Fury wants to know so that he can make other arrangements."

Clint couldn't hold himself back. "But what Fury doesn't understand is that this is not going to work." He threw back the rest of his drink, set the glass down and leaned forward. "There is zero chance in hell that Thor and Asgard are going to allow us to keep Loki if we have him detained, he may be a wanted criminal everywhere but he's still a prince where he comes from and I'm sure that they have some kind of protocol for that. Plus, the reason he got a screw loose in the first place was because he found out he was adopted and that his life was a lie. What are we going to do that would be different? Raise him up with him knowing that he accidentally de-aged himself and that when a cure or whatever was found that we kept him here, instead of letting him go back home where his real family is? Where he really belongs?" Clint stopped, took a deep breath, and looked at Natasha. She looked almost approving, and Clint hoped that she was going to take his side, because there's no way in hell that he'd win this argument if it was just him. "I can see why Fury wants to keep him here, he's a threat to not only this country, but this world, and maybe even this universe, or realm or whatever, but this goes way beyond us. From what Thor's told us, Loki hasn't even been back to Asgard to try to work through his daddy-issues since he crash-landed wherever he found the Chitauri.

"And that's another thing," Clint interrupted his own train of thought, "Loki was working for them and he was tasked by them to get them the Tesseract – I know because he told me when I was brainwashed – and he failed. What if they come back for him? What if they find a way through to this world again and they not only destroy Earth but they take and kill a Loki that can't even defend himself? What if they take him and raise him up their own way and make him even more evil than he was under their control the first time?" When Clint finally stopped silence reigned in the apartment.

When Coulson finally spoke it wasn't what Clint thought it would be. "So you believe that Loki was being controlled by the Chitauri?"

Before Clint could answer Natasha had started talking. "Yes, sir, we do. How else can we explain why Loki hasn't caused any real harm since the first attack? And how else can we explain his sudden change in temperament after he got smashed around by the Hulk? Clint's eyes were electric blue when he was being controlled, and so were Loki's when he was threatening me on the helicarrier. If you look into the eyes of the child in that room over there," Natasha pointed to the boys' room, "they are bright green."

Coulson nodded, and sighed. "Well that's a bit of a relief, if it really is true" he said. "It's kind of nice to know that the man who almost killed me didn't do it of his own volition."

"Sir?" Clint said, speaking for the first time since his rant. "Do you have anything to say about anything that I said?"

"Oh, I completely agree with you. So does Agent Hill. I will talk to Fury, give him all those reasons that you gave me and see what he has to say. He may be director of SHIELD, but he's not the be-all-end-all on decision making." Clint chuckled, and blew out the breath he had been holding.

"Thank you sir."

They chatted for a little while longer, Coulson filling them in on some things that they had missed at SHIELD, Clint and Natasha telling him some of the more memorable moments with the tiny Avengers and their adversary. Eventually Coulson departed, though, and Clint and Natasha were left sitting at the table, side by side.

"I am on your side," Natasha finally said, quietly. "It's my instinct to do my duty, but I agree with everything you told Coulson. Keeping Loki here just won't work." She looked over at him, and gave him a small smile. Clint's own smile was smothered by Natasha's lips as he went in for a kiss.

Sometime that night Clint woke to soft voices. Natasha was speaking to one of the boys in a soothing tone, probably one of them had had a nightmare. When he responded to Natasha's murmuring Clint recognized Loki's voice. He had fallen asleep curled around Natasha, but now he was on his side facing the other way. There was more murmuring and then the mattress dipped as Loki climbed in next to Natasha. He heard rustling as they settled down. He vaguely noted that Loki had become much more attached to Natasha lately, and she was showing signs of actually feeling something for him. That could be a problem. . . Clint thought.

He was slipping back into sleep as he heard, "Good night Natasha," and a barely audible, "Good night Loki, you're safe, I promise."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Two months after Jason Baker's article ran in the New York Times, two weeks after Coulson's visit, they went back to the park a few blocks away from the tower. It was Friday afternoon, so there were a lot of people out and about but Natasha didn't worry about the boys. They had become extremely cautious about making Bruce upset by anything and everything, and when they left the tower everything became a threat that they felt obligated to protect him from. Tony especially did everything in his power to keep Bruce calm and happy - Natasha found it endearing. Even Loki endeavored to keep Bruce happy, instead choosing to irritate the other boys (Thor especially).

Ever since Jason Baker's article had run in the New York Times Natasha had been plagued by the feeling that something would go wrong, that people would freak out and demand something from SHIELD that they could not give - like a cure for the Avengers, or even a way to make regular citizens younger as well.

There had been a few crazies here and there who had managed to capture the attention of a struggling journalist or who wrote to magazines with their own crazy theories; all in all, however, things had not changed very much. After they defeated the Chitauri and Loki went away for a little while things had calmed down and the people had put everything they had into rebuilding New York City and had not had very much energy left over to worry about what the Avengers were doing - as long as they were not being threatened they were fine, and most people didn't call Loki's various large-scale pranks extremely threatening. When they found out that their Avengers were now three to five year olds, they had been slightly disturbed - there was suddenly someone powerful enough to turn back the clock and make four adults young children - and a bit concerned until they had learned that the person responsible was de-aged as well and that they had nothing to fear from him, as long as he stayed like that they were perfectly fine with it. There was no uproar where the media got their hands on them and played them up as some kind of team of "Super Babies". Natasha suspected that SHIELD had something to do with that.

They spent a few hours at the park, simply letting the boys run off their excess energy. They played tag - Clint was forced to join in - and climbed all over the small jungle gym that the park had. There weren't any other children there, but then again it was a small park. It would seem that most kids preferred the larger park a few blocks farther away. Natasha was perfectly fine with that.

"Natasha will you push me on the swing?" Steve asked, running up to her with his eyes in full puppy-dog mode. Natasha gave him a small smile.

"Of course." She stood up and took his outstretched hand and was dragged over to the swings. As she walked she glanced around the park and took inventory. She saw Tony and Bruce running up the wide steps on the jungle gym to go down the slide again, Clint and Thor were taking turns hitting the tetherball around the pole as hard as they could. She had Steve.

She stopped dead in her tracks. Where was Loki?

"C'mon!" Steve said, trying to drag her the rest of the way to the swings.

"Hold on, buddy. Barton!" She yelled. The use of his surname got his attention immediately because Clint looked up at her just as Thor hit the ball and was hit in the chest with it.

"Oof, what?" He yelled back, rubbing his chest.

"Where is Loki?" She turned in circles, looking everywhere she could. "Loki!" She called. "Loki!" There was no response. She breathed heavily in through her nose and out through her mouth - trying to stave off panic. What is wrong with me? She thought. I am a trained assassin, I do not panic, she told herself. Yet something inside her was breaking. Clint ran over and gripped her shoulder, looking straight in her eyes.

"Hey, hey calm down okay? We'll find him. When was the last time you saw him? Boys get over here!" He called to the four boys who had stopped where they were and stood staring at Natasha with confused looks on their faces. Clint repeated his command and they all scurried over to where the two were standing.

"I. . . I think he was sitting at the picnic table over there with his astronomy book," she glanced over at the table and saw that the book was still there. "I saw him there and then I looked away and watched Tony and Bruce and then Steve came over and wanted to swing and then when I looked back he wasn't there."

"Fuck," Clint swore under his breath. Natasha glanced at him and saw him get his phone out. She moved away from him to walk over to the picnic table to pick up Loki's book. It was closed and his papers with his drawings were still neatly tucked just inside the hardback cover. There was no note or anything indicating that someone had taken him, or that they took him because they knew who he is. There was no indication that someone had taken him at all, Natasha told herself. Maybe he just wandered off... But she dismissed that thought quickly. Loki had proven to be a clingy three-year-old. Sure he would go off on his own around the house, but he never went far and he was always eager to rejoin the group; and he had taken to never leaving Natasha too far away. Ever since the night he had joined her in her bed after his nightmare they had bonded. Loki knew that she was not his mother, but he sure did not act like it - and truth be told, no matter how averse to motherhood she had been before this whole fiasco she did not feel as averse to it now. In fact, she had found that it came easily to her. And whether or not their mission stood, Natasha intended to act as if it did. They still had no idea how much longer the boys would remain boys.

She sat heavily on the table's bench, clenching her eyes shut and clutching the astronomy book to her chest. She opened her eyes again when there was a hand on her knee. Thor was standing in front of her.

"Where's Loki?" He asked. She could tell that he was trying to sound brave and strong, but she could hear the slight shake in his words.

"I don't know Thor, but we're going to find him." She put the book down next to her and pulled Thor in for a hug. He wrapped his arms around her neck and held her. She felt a slight sense of shame when she realized that it seemed that Thor was the one comforting her, instead of her comforting him because his brother is missing. She closed her eyes again, and buried her face in Thor's tiny shoulder, his fine blond hair tickling her ear. She let go and looked up at Clint when he sat down next to her on the bench.

"Nick says that we should go home," Natasha's eyes widened despite herself. "He's sent a team to start looking but he says that we need to get the rest of them home just in case this isn't an individual act. What if Loki is just the first?" His voice lowered for the last sentence, and he was looking at her with meaningful eyes. Finally she nodded.

"Okay guys, let's go home." She stood up and took Thor and Bruce - the two closest to her – by the hand and started walking. She glanced back and saw that Clint had taken Tony and Steve by their hands and was walking briskly to try to keep up with her. Steve stumbled, so Clint just picked him up and kept going.

"What about Loki?" Tony asked, he sounded angry that they weren't going to look for him themselves.

"Do you remember Mr. Fury?"

"The one with the eye-patch?" He had visited the previous week to let Clint and Natasha know that their plan for what to do with Loki was being revised. He hadn't said exactly how it was being revised, but Clint had been happy; it seemed that Fury was listening to them.

"Yes, he is sending out a highly trained team to look for him. We have to get you guys home just in case the people that want Loki also want you guys. But don't worry, nothing is going to happen to you." Natasha very much felt like finding the sick bastard herself and bringing back a few of her old pre-SHIELD moves.

When they got home Natasha told the four boys to go play in their room, and surprisingly they all went without complaint. She started pacing in the living room, unable to calm herself down enough to sit on the couch.

"JARVIS, call Pepper."

"Yes, Miss Romanoff." A few seconds later Pepper answered.

"Pepper Potts," she answered. Her voice sounded loud against the quiet of the room.

"Pepper it's Natasha, something's happened."

"Is everyone alright?" She immediately sounded harried.

"We were at the park and I took my eyes off of him for a few minutes and when I looked back he was gone." She stopped pacing. She couldn't keep the anger that had been creeping up on her for the past twenty minutes out of her voice. She should have been more vigilant!

"Who? Is it Tony?" Pepper sounded on the verge of panic.

"No, it's Loki." Pepper paused.

"Oh no," Pepper sounded less concerned now. Natasha's heart sank – because that is exactly how she should have acted herself, instead of worrying like Loki is her own child. Natasha wrapped her arms back around her waist and continued pacing. "I'm coming home. I'll see you in a half hour." With that she hung up.

Clint, who had watched her from the boys' doorway walked into the living room and sat down on the couch. "Natasha come sit down. There is nothing we can do now, our job is to stay here and make sure that the other four are safe."

"How can I just sit down? All five are our job! He is our responsibility! Our mission! They all are and we've failed! Do you know how long I looked away? For only about five minutes, and someone took him from right under my nose. I had my guard down for five minutes and this is what happened." She stopped, and slowed her breathing again. She hadn't realized she had yelled until she stopped and the room became completely silent. She stared at Clint, willing herself to be as calm as he seemed to be. "JARVIS give me the security footage of the boys' room, the live feed."

JARVIS put up the holographic screen without a word. The boys were sitting on their floor. Tony and Steve were playing unenthusiastically with their legos, Bruce was working on his puzzle and Thor was sitting against his bed with his arms wrapped around his knees.

Natasha dismissed the holographic feed and went to the boys' room. She went and sat down next to Thor, who leaned against her. She put her arm around his small shoulders.

"Is Loki going to be okay?" He asked quietly after a minute.

"Yes," Natasha said without thought. She turned so that she could look into his eyes, and took his chin in her hand. His eyes were red, and he was trying to stop his tears but they kept falling. "We're going to find him and bring him home, I promise." In retrospect that was a very stupid promise to make, because regular-sized-Thor demanded that his comrades kept their promises, of course five-year-old-Thor would as well – and there was no way that she could ensure that this promise was kept. All she had was a brittle hope and faith in the people that Fury had sent.

-

Later that night, after everyone had eaten and they had bathed the boys and put them to bed Natasha lay in bed, unable to sleep. She had the security feed floating above her head so that she could reassure the paranoid part of her brain that had emerged over the past few months that the boys – my boys – were safe. She could just barely hear Clint snoring on the couch from her open door. She was vaguely ashamed for denying him access to what had become their bed, but she needed space. She was feeling so emotional and it frightened her. She wasn't used to it, and she didn't know how to deal with herself.

She wished she could sleep like he could, even if just for a few minutes. She felt exhausted – physically and emotionally drained. She rolled over and closed her eyes, willing herself to sleep – even if only for a few hours.

Suddenly she felt a pang of pain in her head. She let out a yelp – not so much from pain as from surprise. She had been almost asleep and suddenly she was wide-awake. She curled in on herself, holding her head. The feeling came back a second time a few seconds later, only this time she felt like she could almost hear a voice calling her name. She sat up in bed. "Loki!" She said, one hand still on her head. She closed her eyes, concentrating on the feeling in her head. She felt another pang, and this time her eyes flew open and her vision whited out for a split second. As her vision came back it was not the TV on the other side of the room that she was looking at – it was a strange concrete wall. She heard whimpering and her name called in a soft, quavering voice and realized that she was looking through Loki's eyes. She had no idea how or why but somehow his magic had broken through whatever barrier his spell had erected when he was blasted by his own spell and reached out to her. She willed Loki to look around to give her a better sense of where he was, but he only stared straight ahead. She closed her eyes as her head throbbed one more time and suddenly she could feel where Loki was. It was almost as if something were tugging on her brain, and she scrambled out of bed to put some clothes and shoes on.

Fully dressed she stumbled out of her room, knocking the wall in her haste and she saw Clint jerk upright on the couch. "I know where he is," Natasha said, her voice urgent. She grabbed keys and looked back at the couch, expecting Clint to question her. Instead she was met with his bare chest right in front of her as he grabbed her face between his hands and kissed her.

"Go get him," was all he said as he very nearly shoved her out the door to the staircase. She flew down the stairs, taking them two, sometimes three at a time. Finally she was in the garage and into her car; seconds later she was speeding down the highway.

She followed the tugging sensation in her brain only four miles to the west. Natasha steeled herself, keeping the anger she felt down so that she could focus. Loki's magic led her directly to an unassuming two-story house with a white picket fence. She parked her car a block away and ran to the back of the house, keeping herself hidden. There was no one on the street and only one streetlight was lit, but there was no telling what kind of sickos lived in this neighborhood, no matter how "nice" it seemed on the outside.

She could feel the magic line pulling her towards a window that was along the bottom of the house – the basement. What kind of sick motherfucker leaves a child in the basement? Natasha shook her head and forced all thoughts out of her mind as she approached the window. She looked inside and saw a carpeted room with concrete walls. There were boxes directly under the window and there was a cot sitting off to one side with a small figure sitting curled up on top of it. Loki! Natasha carefully tested the window, finding it unlocked. Idiots. She saw Loki's head jerk up and a smile blossom on his face. Natasha put her finger to her lips, praying that he stayed silent. She crawled in from the window, thanking whatever gods were listening that the boxes were full of books or something solid and she could just climb down from them. Loki ran to her as she dropped to her knees and wrapped her arms around his small frame. "You're safe, shhh you're safe," she found herself whispering over and over again. She didn't notice the tug on her brain disappear.

"Loki, are there any other kids here with you?" Natasha prayed that this wasn't some kind of human trafficking den she had found, and when Loki shook his head she breathed a sigh of relief. She picked Loki up and carried him to the window, telling him to climb the boxes and get out of there.

Suddenly there was a noise from the top of the stairs and the door opened. Unfortunately there was nothing separating the door from Natasha and Loki's current position, so she could see a man in his mid-to-late thirties standing in the doorway. "What the hell do you think you're doing!" He yelled and started down the stairs.

"Get behind me Loki," Natasha said, setting him down and preparing to take this man down.

"What's going on?" Came a female voice from the top of the stairs, but before Natasha could get a look at her she was in full-fledged Black Widow mode, and the man was down in seconds. As Natasha made sure that the man wasn't going to wake up any time soon, the woman the top of the stairs screamed and yelled that she was going to call the police, but before she could even move Natasha was up the stairs with her hand around the woman's throat holding her against the wall.

"Do you really think that that would do you any good, when I have you here on kidnapping?" She said, her voice dangerously low. The woman's eyes widened and she choked out, "who are you?" Suddenly Natasha recognized her – the woman from the park the week before.

Natasha narrowed her eyes and didn't answer. Instead she pulled out her phone and dialed SHIELD.  
"Agent?" Came Coulson's calm voice.

"I've got him," Natasha gave the street name and house number. She quickly knocked the woman out and set her down on the ground. She gave the woman one final contemptuous look before hurrying back down the stairs. She didn't see Loki at first, but quickly spotted a small dog cowering in the corner. It was black with green eyes and Natasha surmised that Loki had gotten scared and shifted in order to hide himself. She went over to the puppy and picked him up, cradling him close to her chest. She didn't see the point of going back through the window so she took the stairs and walked out the front door. She waited on the porch for five minutes before one of SHIELD's cars showed up. Coulson got out along with two other agents. A police car pulled up a few seconds later

"Is he okay?" Phil said as he ascended the steps of the house.

"Yes, he's just scared. He watched me take down the two psychos in there."

"Where are they?"

"Out cold in the basement."

"Wouldn't have expected anything less from you, Natasha. Go home and get some rest, you look like hell." Phil gave Loki a pat on the head, a smile, and Natasha a pat on the shoulder. Natasha gave him a small smile, and headed back to her car. As she walked she felt Loki start to shift back and adjusted her hold to accommodate a child instead of a dog, and held him closer as he buried his head in the crook of her neck.

"Are you okay?" She whispered as she put him in the car. She didn't have a car seat, so she just tried to get him as securely buckled-in as she could.

"I'm hungry," he said and Natasha laughed quietly.

"I'll make you breakfast when we get home."

"Pancakes?"

"Anything you want."

-

When Clint woke up the next morning, he was momentarily confused as to why he was sleeping on the couch. Then he remembered the events of the previous day. He sat up, stretched his arms up and yawned. He stood up, scratching the back of his head, and headed to Natasha's room. He cracked the door open and peered in.

Natasha was curled up on her side under the sheet, and Loki was curled up right next to her, facing her. One of Natasha's arms was wrapped securely around Loki's small shoulders and one of his hands was clenched in the t-shirt that she slept in. Clint wasn't surprised to find him there.

He hadn't been able to fall back asleep after Natasha had rushed out the night before, and had paced for a while, made himself some coffee, and then ended up just sitting on the couch staring aimlessly out the window at the lights of the city. Even at two am it was still so bright.

Finally, at three JARVIS had announced that Natasha was back with Loki, and a few minutes later the door opened and Natasha entered holding a sleeping Loki. Clint stood and watched as Natasha went straight for the boys' room. He followed, and stopped in the doorway, leaning against the frame. She laid Loki down on his bed and went to the large closet that held all of the boys' clothes. She came back out a few moments later carrying a clean set of pajamas for Loki. Clint went and helped her carefully undress Loki and put on the shirt and flannel sleep pants. He didn't open his eyes once.

When they were done Clint took Natasha by the hand and they exited the boys' room and quietly shut the door. Clint pulled Natasha into a hug and held her there. She didn't return it at first, her arms hanging limply at her sides; however, after a moment she wrapped her arms around his middle and held him so tight it was difficult for him to breathe. She pressed her face into his chest, and Clint knew that if she were any other woman she would be crying right now. After a minute or two they broke apart and Clint leaned forward, pressing his forehead to hers. She leaned up and kissed him, and then pulled back completely.

"I need to be alone," she said quietly, and Clint nodded; he didn't quite understand, but he knew that she would tell him what happened in the morning.

Now Clint withdrew from the room, leaving the door ajar, and went to the kitchen. According to the oven clock it was seven thirty. He rubbed his eyes, wishing that he could go back to sleep, but he was awake now and that wouldn't change. He decided to make coffee, and grabbed the first book he could find in the living room, The Hobbit. Loki had been reading it to Thor, and had seemed to enjoy it. While he waited for the coffee to be finished he sat down on the couch and started reading. In a hole in the ground, there lived a hobbit. Clint chuckled, and continued reading.

A half an hour later Clint heard a door open and close again quietly, and after a few seconds Natasha sat down on the couch next to him.

"I made coffee, if you want some?" Clint asked, marking his page and looking up at her. She looked tired, as if she hadn't slept well – and indeed, she hadn't slept very long. She nodded, and he went into the kitchen and poured two mugs of coffee from Tony's fancy coffeemaker. He was pleased to find that even a half hour after making the coffee it was still piping hot. He re-entered the living room, handed Natasha her coffee – black, as she likes it – and sat back down. "I thought you'd sleep longer."

"I didn't sleep much. Couldn't shut my brain up," she muttered, taking a sip. She winced a little at how hot it was, but took another sip anyways.

"What happened last night?" Clint asked after a few comfortably silent moments. Natasha took a deep breath and set her mug down.

"I'm not sure why, but Loki's magic must have activated itself, probably because he was scared, and it attached itself to my mind, and I just knew where he was. I even saw through his eyes for a few seconds. It was almost like I was being pulled to where he was."

"Where was he?"

"In a fucking nice two-story house with a white picket fence. It was the most innocuous house imaginable, and he was locked up in the basement with no light, no bathroom, and only a stupid cot to sleep on. He was huddled in the corner when I got there." Clint felt anger flare up, and he was suddenly itching to get out his bow and arrows.

"There was a middle-aged couple there when I got in. The woman was the same woman from the park last week." Clint felt the color drain from his face. He had spoken to that woman, he hadn't given her secrets of course, but he hadn't suspected her in the least and had mentioned that the boys liked that park and that they went fairly often. He felt slightly sick.

"What about the girl that was at the park with her? She said it was her daughter but I'm starting to doubt that was the case."

"Loki didn't think that there were any other kids there – it could have been her niece or someone she was babysitting. . . She and the guy she was with are in SHIELD's custody now, and God help them if they let me interrogate them." Clint couldn't help but agree with her wholeheartedly.

It was at that moment that Natasha's door opened again, and Loki emerged, rubbing his eyes. He was still in his pajamas. He walked over to the couch and climbed up so that he was sitting in between Clint and Natasha. "I'm hungry," he mumbled, sounding tired and cranky.

"Of course, what do you want? Pancakes?" Natasha said, smoothing his fine black hair down as he leaned against her. He nodded, and moved so that he was leaning against Clint as Natasha stood up and went into the kitchen.

Clint was still holding the Hobbit, and lifted his arm so that Loki could nestle under it as he opened it up and started reading. After a few minutes the boys' door opened Thor came around the couch a couple seconds later. He stopped for a fraction of a second and then he surged forward and Loki ducked from under Clint's arm and they were throwing their arms around each other. Clint closed his book again and watched as Thor tightened his hold on his brother and whispered, "I missed you."

"I missed you too, brother."


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

The next day Natasha and Clint had a meeting with Fury and Coulson. They gathered around a long oval shaped table with a television screen set up on one end. Natasha's legs and arms were crossed and she was glaring so hard she thought it was a good thing that she didn't have a superpower, because she was sure that the television would have exploded by now.

The screen showed two separate rooms on either side. Each small room had only a table and two chairs, and a SHIELD agent, with a woman in one and a man in the other. The man was alone, having already been questioned, but the woman was glaring at a SHIELD agent who was staring impassively back at her. The interrogator, Agent Cobb, was having trouble getting anything out of her, as she refused to say anything. Little did she know that her accomplice had already told Cobb everything.

"Let me talk to her," Natasha had asked heatedly when the woman refused to speak. Fury had only shaken his head and said, "We want them alive, Romanoff." Out of the corner of her eye she saw Clint smirk and suppress a laugh.

They were Sarah and James Bates, and they were part of a much larger human trafficking organization that worked within the East coast of the United States. Natasha had felt sick at first, but had quickly moved past that into murderous rage. Every now and then she glanced at Clint, who looked exactly like she felt.

Yes, she had done horrible things in the past, killed innocent people, killed people that deserved a second chance, tortured, blackmailed, but she had never enslaved anyone. She had never sold another person - that went beyond even her warped morals.

Natasha turned her attention back to the screen, Sarah had started talking.

"Why did you take him?" Cobb asked, sitting down in the chair across from her.

"Because he can shape-shift, and would make me a lot of money," she said smiling. She seemed to have accepted the fact that she was caught. The fact that she knows she's going to jail probably makes it easier for her to give up her accomplices, since she thinks they can't get to her in jail.

Natasha stood up and started pacing the room. "Natasha calm down," Nick said. "They'll get what's coming to them."

"I'd like to give it to them." She stopped pacing and stared at Fury. He stared back.

"I would like nothing more than to let you do that. If not for what almost happened to our tiny supervillain, than for what is happening to every other child that wasn't able to connect himself to your brain. Which, barring the fact that it led us to this, I am not happy about." Natasha stared into Fury's eye, refusing to look abashed. She was closer to Loki than she meant to get, but one cannot change the past, they can only deal with the present and plan for the future. She only hoped that her attachment to him wouldn't cause Fury to do something drastic.

"One does not simply keep an emotionally damaged man-turned-child at arms length. I may even have a lasting effect on him once this is all over and he's back to normal," Natasha's eyes narrowed at the end of that sentence. Fury didn't respond at first.

"Well, either way we now have intel on a huge trafficking ring that the FBI has been tracking for years now. Thanks to our little trickster," he said sardonically. "Now, if you two will excuse me I have bigger fish to fry." Natasha wanted to ask who he meant by "bigger fish" but he was already walking out the door, waving one hand over his shoulder as he walked out of view. Clint stood up and turned to her after he was sure that Fury was gone.

"Come on," he said, turning to leave. Natasha followed, figuring he meant that they were going to go home, but then he turned left instead of right, towards the parking garage.

"Where are we going?" She caught up and kept pace at his side.

"You'll see." Natasha didn't respond, instead only sped up when he sped up. Three minutes and three flights of stairs later they were in the second sub-basement and Clint stopped in front of a door marked 15. "I saw which rooms they were keeping those fuckers in and thought you'd want to say a few words before they cart them off God knows where to juice the rest of the info from them." Clint was looking pretty pleased with himself, and only looked more smug as a dangerous smile spread across Natasha's lips. "I'll keep guard, don't be too long."

Natasha gripped the door handle and opened the door slowly. She slipped inside and smirked at the look of surprise and fear on Sarah Bates's face. Natasha quickly crossed the room, skirted around the metal table and grabbed a fistful of Sarah's greying brown hair, jerking her head back so that the woman was looking into her eyes. "Remember me?" She hissed.

"Who are you?" She tried to sound strong, but her voice shook and Natasha could see the terror in her eyes. She hadn't realized how much she missed this, striking fear into people just before she killed them. Not that she was going to kill this woman, but oh how she wanted to.

"They call me the Black Widow, and back before I was one of these guys I would have broken your neck and walked away without a thought. Unfortunately, I'm not allowed to kill you." Natasha lowered her voice. "But know this, if I'm not satisfied with whatever SHIELD does to you, I will find you, and I will come after you, and I will make you wish that you had never been born." Natasha let go of her hair, punched her in the face, hard, and walked out of the room.

"Want to talk to the husband?" Clint asked when she closed the door with a definitive click.

"I think I got my point across," she didn't stop walking, and she smiled when she heard Clint scramble to catch up to her.

"Is this the old Natasha I'm seeing?" He asked under his breath as they walked shoulder-to-shoulder. She looked over at him and winked.

-

They got back to Stark Tower twenty minutes later, and when they reached the 80th floor there was no one there.

"JARVIS where is everyone?"

"They are one floor down, in the gym." Clint looked at Natasha, one eyebrow raised, and together they turned around and went back to the elevator. Once they reached the 79th floor they opened the door and immediately Clint was hit in the face with a rubber exercise ball. Natasha couldn't stop the laugh that burst out of her mouth as she walked around him into the room. The five boys were running around throwing various sized rubber balls at each other in some variation of dodgeball.

"Hi Natasha!" Steve yelled as Tony threw a ball at her head. She caught it and threw it back at him, knocking him on his backside.

"Hey guys, hey Pepper," Natasha said, crossing around the mat to the elliptical Pepper was on.

"Hey Nat, what happened?" Natasha recounted the events of the meeting, omitting her own visit with Sarah Bates, and then asked how they boys were during the three hours she and Clint were gone.

"They've been fine, they started to get restless so I decided to bring them down here and we could all get some exercise." Pepper started to slow down, breathing deeply in through her nose and blowing forcefully out her mouth. "They haven't had lunch yet, the only one complaining is Thor, but I figure they're all hungry."

Natasha turned her gaze from Pepper to look around the room. Clint was being pelted over and over again by rubber balls as the boys roared with laughter and threw them harder. "Alright guys, that's enough, I think you killed him," she said taking the ball out of Tony's hand as he lifted it over his head to throw it at Clint's face. Clint took the hint and faked an exaggerated death, falling face-first onto the mat. The boys cheered and followed Natasha back toward the elevator. Clint and Pepper joined them after a few seconds and together they headed back upstairs.

As they ate lunch, chicken nuggets and French fries, Tony declared that he wanted to go swimming.

An hour later they found themselves on the fiftieth floor. Natasha couldn't see the logic behind putting the pool right in the middle of the tower, between labs, and workshops and gods know what else was in Stark Tower, but it was Tony, so she didn't think too hard about it. Tony also had a pool on the roof, but being that it was November Natasha didn't think it would be a good idea, even if the pool was heated.

Natasha watched from the lounge chair on the edge as the boys played in the pool – thankfully they had all retained the ability to swim, and they seemed to be a lot more proficient than children their age should. Once again Natasha didn't think too hard about it, because this time it was Loki and there didn't seem to be any logic in what he did sometimes. Pepper had shown them where Tony kept his pool toys – because of course Tony would have pool toys, Natasha thought, the bastard has everything – and Tony, Steve, Bruce, and Thor were battling Clint in a water-noodle-war, the sounds of them hitting each other echoed loudly, and their squeals of joy echoed even louder, but Natasha didn't mind the noise. Pepper was sitting on the ledge, her legs in the water. She wore her swimsuit, but a t-shirt over it. Loki was holding on to an inner tube at least twice his size, and only from his knees down was actually in the water; he seemed content, however, occasionally cheering Thor on. Mostly he was quietly observing.

Natasha wanted to ask him about what happened after he was taken, talk to him about it, but she didn't know how to broach the topic, or how he would react. For now he seemed content to act as if it hadn't happened, but Natasha saw subtle changes that she knew no one other than Thor saw. He absolutely refused to be alone, following Thor around like a duckling following its mother. He was having nightmares, and both nights since the incident he had spent most of the night in someone else's bed, the first night hers, and then the next when Natasha had checked on them after she woke up he was in Thor's bed, and they were curled up together, Thor's arms wrapped tightly around Loki. Natasha wondered if when they were children for the first time if they shared a bed, because Loki never seemed entirely comfortable in his own bed alone. She couldn't count the times she had checked on them if she woke before them to find Loki in Thor's bed, and, on occasion, Thor in Loki's.

Natasha was starting to wonder when SHIELD would find a way to fix the boys. She wondered how much longer she would be charged to care for them. It was changing her, steadily, and she wasn't sure she liked it. She was softer than before, she allowed herself to feel for the first time in her life and it was just so easy.

She hated it.

She had lived her entire life working herself to the bone to get what she wanted, and despite having to watch after five young boys every day she was bored. I don't know how I ever thought I could settle down, she thought, staring at Clint's head as he struggled to stay above water when he had four boys trying as hard as they could to push him under. He grabbed Tony from in front of him and picked him up, lifting him up out of the water and he threw him to the other side of the pool. The boys stopped for a split second, and Tony sputtered back out of the water. "Do it again!" he screamed, and swam as fast as he could back to Clint. The other boys wanted in as well and Clint spent the next twenty minutes throwing them all across the pool.

The reality of how domestic her life had become freaked Natasha out - she longed to go out and assassinate someone. She would have liked to start with Sarah Bates.

Natasha turned her head from the pool and stared out the window. It was four thirty and cloudy outside. It looked like it was going to start raining soon, maybe even thunder. That'll make Thor and Loki happy. . .

When Natasha thought about what could have happened to Loki if he hadn't had magic, if he hadn't been able to reach out to her, she felt a strange mixture of rage and fear settle in her gut. If it had been any of the other boys, and indeed, it is thousands of other children and teenagers that are taken from their families every day that don't have magic, and aren't able to reach out for help.

If she weren't on a mission right now Natasha would go locate and kill every member of whatever organization the Bateses worked for. And she wouldn't be nice about it. No, there would be no quick painless deaths for kidnappers and enslavers.

Natasha closed her eyes and willed herself to think of something else. She stood up, took off her t-shirt, and jumped into the pool, joining in on the boys' play.

-

"I wonder if they're going to remember," Clint said later that night as he, Natasha, and Pepper sat around the table drinking and talking. Pepper laughed.

"I hope they do. I can't blackmail Tony with anything he's done – he wouldn't care, but he definitely owes me for throwing up on me twice when he was sick." Natasha smirked.

"I just want them to be changed back." She took a sip of her drink. "But it would be nice if they did. Especially Loki. Maybe he'll have changed a bit when he's himself again."

"Or maybe he'll just be as fucked up and crazy as he was." Natasha shrugged slightly, conceding the point.

"I just wish I understood what went wrong," Pepper said. Clint and Natasha stared at her. Natasha hadn't thought about that. Of course something must have gone wrong somewhere during his youth that led him on this path. Normal people don't just wake up one day and think 'I think I'll take over another planet today.' "It seems that they are acting mostly how they did when they were actually that age, and Loki's was a perfectly normal kid – for being an alien, I mean. He's smarter, quieter, and more prone to mischief than normal three-year-olds, but not completely abnormal."

"Thor said he found out quite suddenly that he was adopted, that probably messed with his mind. Especially since a ton of shit happened right after and he never really got to talk to his parents about it, as far as Thor knew," Natasha said.

"What happened after he found out?" Pepper asked, Natasha guessed that Tony hadn't told her – hell, Tony probably hadn't even paid attention when Thor was telling them about Loki.

"Thor said that their father went into some kind of scheduled coma that he does, and Loki was made king for a while because Thor had been banished – grounded more like it – to earth. Then Loki let Asgard's enemies into the city and then killed said enemies – including his birth father, and then tried to kill Thor and it ended with Thor breaking their means of travel between the worlds and Loki falling into the abyss between them. Then after that you know, because the next time Thor saw him was when he got here." Clint scowled at the memory of that time immediately following Loki's arrival, and Pepper looked sad.

"I know he's our enemy, but poor guy. I know that if I found out late in life that I was adopted I would be pretty shaken up about it."

"At least you grew up with parents," Clint said through his glass before downing the rest of it. Pepper didn't respond, and Natasha shot him a glare.

He stood up to take his glass back to the kitchen and Natasha mused out loud, "if only there were a way to get in touch with Asgard." Pepper looked over to her, immediately catching on to her train of thought. "They have to have other sorcerers, maybe they can send someone to fix them. I mean, let's face it. SHIELD is good, but they don't deal in magic." Natasha looked out the window and could distantly see the Statue of Liberty, still with its helmet.

-

Peter's been busy, Clint thought as he saw a big picture of Spider-Man on the front page of the next day's morning paper. Another red-suited mask-wearing man had been teasing him with crimes here and there that he knew Spider-Man would show up to, but then getting away after only chatting a bit. Clint's eyebrow raised and he shook his head. Sounds a little nuts. Clint had heard stories about Deadpool. He's absolutely insane, and Clint had no desire to deal with him.

Clint wasn't exactly looking forward to the scheduled events of that day, a wet and dreary Monday. Coulson had called the night before after dinner and informed Clint that the scientists working on their case wanted to examine each boy, and run some tests on them to see if it would help them find a way to restore them to normal. Clint could see how it would be a good idea, however he also knew the boys as they are now, and knew that they weren't going to like it. Especially Loki and Thor. The two boys were rarely apart these days. Clint wondered if there was a way they could be together during the process, but quickly dismissed the idea – SHIELD scientists were cold and fairly rigid. They would have their system, and not let it be adjusted. Clint thought they just need a drink. Oh god I'm starting to sound like Tony.

An hour later Clint was riding the elevator down to the parking garage with Bruce. They hadn't specified which boy they wanted to see first, so Clint and Natasha decided that Bruce and Tony would probably be the most cooperative, being of a scientific and curious nature, and so they should go first. Bruce asked question after question about what he was going to be doing that day, and after the first few basic questions Clint started bullshitting answers. Bruce didn't seem to notice, however, and continued happily chattering away.

When they arrived at HQ Clint took Bruce to the wing where all the science labs were located, and met Coulson along the way.

"Hey Phil," Clint said when the other man fell in step with him and Bruce, who was looking around with wonder – the hallway had floor-to-ceiling windows on the left side that looked out over the city.

"Hey Clint, hey Bruce." Bruce looked away from the window just long enough to give Coulson a smile and a wave.

-

Twenty minutes later Clint was walking back to his car with a scowl on his face. When he and Bruce had arrived where the scientists, Drs. Brown and Lamar, had specified, they took Bruce by the hand and took him away, telling Clint that they can pick him up tomorrow morning at 8. Clint had followed them, a little dismayed at the lack of information being offered to him. He was met, however, with a reprimand – they told him that they were just trying to do their job to fix the Avengers, and you're not the boy's father. That had particularly angered Clint, and he couldn't figure out why. He asked them what kinds of test they were going to run on him, and they wouldn't tell him. Just that they were hopefully going to give them more insight as to how they were changed, and help them find a way to fix them.

Clint didn't really remember the drive back to Stark Tower, but as soon as he was back on the 80th floor he was dragged into a game of hide-and-seek and for a few hours he could forget how irritating SHIELD could be.

Natasha wasn't so pleased when Clint told her that night, when the two assassins and Pepper sat around the table after dinner, what Drs. Brown and Lamar had – or rather, hadn't – told him when they led Bruce away. Clint and Pepper tried to placate her, telling her that SHIELD is humane and knows its boundaries.

"You two seem to forget that SHIELD tried to blow up New York City with a nuclear bomb that almost killed Tony. I just don't like it, they're our teammates, and they're four years old right now. I just want to know what's being done to them." The table had gone silent after that.

"Well. . . We'll see tomorrow morning at 8am."

That night Clint walked into his and Natasha's room, finally being allowed to share her bed again, he was met with Natasha sitting on her bed, in only her bra and panties. His eyes went wide and she smirked. He stripped his shirt off, and surged forward. Their lips connected as he pushed her down onto the bed, straddling her to kneel on the bed. They kissed for a few minutes before Natasha reached for his jeans button and a minute later their clothes lay mixed up in a heap on the floor.

A few hours later they lay in each other's arms, Natasha tucked under Clint's chin. "I hope Bruce is okay. . ." She murmured.

"I'm sure he is," Clint whispered, and kissed her temple.

"They're probably going to do blood work, and a physical, but what else could they do that would take all night?"

"Maybe memory tests? They want to see exactly what's changed and what's not. We know roughly how their memories are changed just from being around them for three months but SHIELD doesn't really."

"He'll come back in one piece." Clint hugged Natasha tighter and closed his eyes.

About ten minutes later Clint was on the brink of sleep when Natasha said something that he thought she would never say. It was barely audible, but to Clint it felt like it was screamed out in a cave where it echoed back and reverberated through his head, burrowing itself in his memory and vowing never to leave.

"I love you."

Clint smiled.

-

The next morning when Natasha returned from SHIELD with Bruce he looked no worse for the wear. He wore a Band-Aid on the inside of his elbow where blood was drawn, and he looked exhausted but other than that he was fine. Clint saw a visible change in Natasha's stress levels over the next few days. The excitement of Loki's kidnapping and then her worry over what SHIELD was going to do to the boys was dying down, and they were settling back into their schedule – and the great sex was only beneficial. Steve went next, and then Tony, and though Tony was in a very bad mood when he came back – Tired Tony is not a Happy Tony – he napped for a few hours and then went to bed early that night and was fine after that.

When it was Thor's turn to leave, however, Loki threw a fit. He hadn't really cared when the others left – after Bruce came back safe and sound he knew that the others were going to be fine when they came back and paid it no mind. But when Clint told Loki that it was Thor's turn to go spend the night at SHIELD Loki seemed to forget that, and cried as Clint left with Thor.

As they rode down the elevator Clint glanced down at Thor and saw that he was trying to keep a tough face, but his lip was trembling. Clint reached down and took Thor's hand and squeezed.

"Don't worry buddy, you'll be back tomorrow morning and Loki will be fine. I promise." Thor looked up at him and beckoned for Clint to come down to his level. Clint squatted next to Thor.

"Do not let him out of your sight." Thor's finger was in Clint's face, and he looked as serious as a tow-headed five-year-old with bright baby blue eyes could. Clint wanted to smile, but he suppressed it and nodded solemnly.

"You can count on me, sir." Thor nodded, and Clint stood back up – finally allowing himself a wide smile and a chuckle.

Clint returned home an hour later, and was greeted with a quiet apartment. There was no one in the living room, but Clint could hear the tell tale signs of a movie playing. He followed the instrumental music to his and Natasha's room where she and Steve, Tony, and Bruce were curled up on the bed watching the Muppet Show, hosted by Vincent Price. Clint grinned – he was one of the few who knew that Natasha actually enjoyed that show, and that this was her favorite episode. It seemed that she had decided to share this secret with the team though, and all three boys had smiles on their faces. He leaned against the doorframe and stared at Natasha, but was startled when he realized that she was stroking a lump of black fur on her abdomen. It seemed that Loki had calmed down and decided to shift – he was curled up as a kitten on Natasha's stomach, and looked like he was fast asleep.

Clint pushed off from the door frame and walked over to the bed, picking Steve up and sitting down in his place, settling him on his lap. Natasha looked over to him and quirked an eyebrow.

"He's fine, he's tough kid," he whispered. "And him?" He nodded to Loki.

"He cried for a bit and then turned into a cat, he's fine though."

The next morning Clint retrieved Thor at 8am as usual, and he sported the same Band-Aid on his arm and tired look in his eye, but he was his usual happy self. He walked in, gave Loki a hug, assured him that he was okay, and promptly passed out on the couch.

When it was time to take Loki to SHIELD the next day he was much braver than he had been when Thor left. Natasha took him by the hand and together they left the apartment. Thor told Clint that he didn't like the idea of Loki being alone, but Clint assured him that there were many people there to watch over him, and that he was extremely safe.

At around lunchtime JARVIS informed Clint and Natasha that Fury was on the line for them, and they both went into Tony's office.

"Agent Romanoff," Natasha said after she told JARVIS to connect the call.

"Good afternoon Natasha," Fury's voice came over the line. "I'm calling about Sarah and James Bates, I thought you would like to know what is to become of them." Natasha scowled at the mention of their names, and Clint squeezed her shoulder to ground her.

"I trust you've decided what to do with them?" Natasha said, suddenly calm as ever. She was good at that.

"Yes. They are to be tried on numerous counts of kidnapping, as well as aiding and abetting the sex and slave trade in New York. There is no chance of them getting anything less than life sentences, I will personally make sure of that." Clint snickered, he would hate to be anyone was so far on Nick Fury's Bad Side that there was no coming back. "We were also able to get names and addresses of numerous of their accomplices, so we are well on our way to shutting this thing down once and for all."

"That's very good news, sir," Clint said.

"Yes it is Agent Barton." Clint thought that Fury was going to sign off after that, but he cleared his throat. "Another thing that you need to know, Drs. Brown and Lamar need to keep Loki for a little longer than they did the others. Since the magic came from him they want to do a few more tests to see if they can tap into the magic that seems to be dormant inside of him, we will contact you when you can come get him. That's all," Fury said, and Clint quickly responded with his goodbye; the look of anger on Natasha's face scared him a little, and he didn't want her to say anything that she would regret later.

"They what?" She started, but Clint took her by the shoulders.

"Natasha please don't hate me for this, but you need to distance yourself. I know that you've grown to care for Loki, I have too and so has Pepper and the rest of the team, but you are forgetting that he isn't one of our teammates, he isn't even an ally – he's the enemy even though it doesn't seem like it at the moment. I know that the line between enemy and ally can be blurred for you sometimes, but you need to ground yourself. He'll be fine, and he'll come back in a few days." Natasha's eyes narrowed dangerously for a few minutes, and they stood in the office staring at each other; Clint pleaded with his eyes for her to understand. Finally she relaxed, her eyes closed for a moment, and then opened again, most of her anger gone.

"You're right, thank you." Clint dropped his hands. "We'll see him again in a few days, and hopefully the scientists will be that much closer to figuring out how to fix them all.

But five days later Clint could tell that Natasha was starting to get irritated again, and the look on her face every time Thor asked when he brother was coming back had started to piss Clint off.

So he called Fury again, and asked when they were going to be done with Loki.

"Agent Barton, the war criminal Loki is not longer your responsibility."


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Natasha slammed her fist on the desk with enough force to crack the sturdy wood. Every time she tried to talk to Fury he would either avoid the subject of Loki entirely, or he would tell her to focus on her mission and not to concern herself about.

It had been a week since Clint had told her that SHIELD had taken over Loki's custody. It irritated her more than she could possibly explain. It was obvious to everyone that she had grown attached, and why she was so frustrated that he was taken away from her. In the end, though, Natasha wasn't angry that Loki was taken away from her - it was that she had been taken away from Loki. Thor had been taken away from Loki. Everyone he was comfortable with, everyone that he loved was taken away from him – again.

All Loki needed in his life was some love and affection, and once again he was denied that. She didn't even know in what kinds of conditions he was being kept - was he alone, did he have someone with him? Was he as sad as Thor was without him? The change in the boy was startling; the usually happy and energetic Thor was quiet and calm and he just looked miserable. He had an air of melancholy that was much too mature for a five year old and Natasha wondered if it was triggering some of his feelings of losing Loki the first time, when Loki let go and fell into the abyss below Asgard's broken bridge.

Natasha tried to not think about it, because every time she did she felt like breaking something. Something like Fury's face.

She blew off her extra steam by going down to the gym every morning and running for an hour. Usually it was before anyone else had woken up, but sometimes Clint would join her, or sometimes the boys would join her, playing and running around burning off some of the morning hyperness.

A week and a half after SHIELD took Loki, Natasha and Clint got a call from Agent Coulson. They took the call in the office.

"What's up, Phil?" Clint said when JARVIS connected the call.

"Good morning Clint, Natasha. How are you doing?" He sounded like he already knew the answer.

"We're fine," Natasha said shortly, not wanting to discuss it with him. She knew that he disagreed with Fury's decision; arguing with Coulson would do nothing except piss her off.

"I went and saw him today," Phil started slowly, and when no one stopped him he continued. "He's in a nice room, it's not big but not incredibly small either. He's got a bed, a few books, some toys, and he asked for some blank paper and pencils. He was okay until I asked him how he was feeling, and he said he misses you." Natasha's mouth had thinned to a slit at that point, and she was trying hard to keep her face neutral. She glanced at Clint and saw that he was watching her, so she took in a breath and blew it out, shaking her head. "Is there anything you want me to tell him from you?"

"Tell him he needs to be strong." Natasha didn't hesitate before answering. Clint nodded and agreed.

"I'll tell him." His demeanor shifted to a more official one. "Now, the reason I was instructed to call you was because you are needed on a mission."

"But we're on a mission," Clint said, sounding vaguely confused.

"The mercenary known as Deadpool has been causing trouble recently-"

"Yeah, I read about it in the paper."

"And he's finally gone into territory reached the point where we need to get involved. You've read that he's been committing minor crimes in attempt to get Spider-Man's attention, and for a while it worked but eventually Peter got tired of showing up only to be chatted up by an insane criminal. So He stopped showing up, and then Deadpool's crimes went from minor acts of vandalism to break-ins, fires, and he wounded one man who is still in the hospital. Earlier this morning he broke into the home of a woman and her daughter and took them to an abandoned warehouse in the Bronx. It could be where he's living at the moment, could just be a random place he chose. All we know right now is that Spider-Man is there and is unable to find them all the while keeping Deadpool out of the way. We need you two to go and help him." Natasha looked at Clint and they stared at each other for a few seconds before Clint nodded.

"Sounds like fun, we could use a break."

"What's the address?" Natasha asked. Coulson told them the coordinates.

"You'll need to take some kind of high-power tranquilizer, not much can knock this guy out. He's also extremely skilled with martial arts and swords, as well as being completely insane, so his fighting style is particularly chaotic from what I've heard. He is, as far as we know, unable to die, which is why you need the tranquilizers so that you can knock him out and bring him back to SHIELD."

"That's a pain. . ." Clint muttered under his breath, Natasha smirked and nodded. Finally, a proper distraction.

"We'll get him." A few seconds later they ended the call, and Natasha went out to the living room to tell Pepper what was going on. Fortunately for them, Deadpool decided to kidnap someone on a Saturday so she didn't have to worry about someone other than the three of them watching the boys. Ever since the incident at the park and then with Fury she didn't trust anyone with them.

"Where are you going?" Steve asked a few minutes later when Natasha emerged from her room in her uniform. Clint followed shortly after, a backpack on his back that contained his bow, and his quiver slung next to it over his shoulder.

"We have to go help Peter with a little problem of his. You remember, the babysitter who put Tony on the ceiling," She replied, as she made sure that all of her own concealed weapons were in place. She squatted down to his level and put her hands on his shoulders, the others gathered around Steve. "You guys need to be good for Pepper, and we'll be back in a while." She hesitated, unsure as to whether to say what was on the tip of her tongue. Because, they really didn't know if they would be back. They never did when they went off on a mission.

"We love you guys," she decided it was worth it in the end for them to hear it if she and Clint were to be killed by a psychopathic immortal mercenary today, even if they were four and five, and may not even remember it in the end. She squeezed Steve's shoulders, and smiled before standing up.

"Bye guys," Clint said, and then they were heading down the stairs towards Natasha's car.

It took almost an hour to drive to the warehouse specified in the coordinates that Coulson gave them; Clint had wanted to take the helicopter, but Natasha had said no – "Don't be stupid, where are we going to land it when we get there?"

-

When they arrived Natasha raised her eyebrows - the warehouse in question was extremely dilapidated. She thought it might have been red, but it was so faded that it was almost impossible to tell. The grass around it had been growing for years, and was completely overrun with weeds and other invasive species. The roof had holes all over it, so and she was sure that the inside was also overrun with grass and weeds. Clint parked one block over and together they got out and quickly made their way over to the building. Natasha had her gun at the ready, as did Clint, and one after the other they slipped inside.

When they entered they saw that it was full of boxes, and the smell was terrible. "What do you think is in them?" Clint asked.

"Some kind of food?" Natasha wrinkled her nose, "I don't think I want to find out."

"Who the hell leaves a warehouse full of food?"

"Something must have happened. . ." They decided against splitting up, and walked to the left, intending to establish the perimeter of the giant room. There were several entrances into the maze-like configuration of the boxes, and she wondered where Peter, Deadpool, and the two people he'd kidnapped were. Most likely in the middle. Her thoughts were confirmed when she heard a voice rise from the middle of the room.

"Spider-Man!" She could only assume was Deadpool's voice rang out. "Spiiiiiiider-Maaaaan! Where aaaaaaaare youuuuuu?"

Natasha stopped for a second. So he's not with Deadpool, then where is he? She looked at Clint, and he narrowed his eyes as if he was asking himself the exact same question. Deadpool continued to call out for Spider-Man as they crept along the edge of the building. As they passed another entrance, they saw Spider-Man as he landed three feet from them.

"Finally!" He said, leaping up and over to them. "I can't get close to him, he's too fast. And he can teleport, so as soon as I get close to him or the woman and her daughter he just teleports somewhere else in this maze."

"Spiiiiiider-Maaaaan!"

"It sounds like he wants you to find him," Clint said, unable to keep the smirk from his lips.

"He's been doing that since he saw me arrive."

Suddenly there was a sound of wind rushing and Deadpool was standing in front of them. "Well howdy!" He said, and then he leapt over them and lashed out. Natasha managed to turn around fast enough to deflect his blow to her head, but it soon became a blur of movement. They would grapple for a few seconds and then he would jump or teleport to another side of them, and they would have to reorient themselves to him. Spider-Man continued to try to use his web to subdue him, but he missed; Deadpool was impossibly fast for a man of his size and bulk. He was easily six foot five inches, and had enough muscle to rival Captain America. Whenever he appeared somewhere new he would taunt them with things like, "Nope, over here!" or "Oooh close one, try a little harder next time."

It was starting to piss Natasha off. She threw everything into trying to land a blow on him, and she saw that Peter and Clint were as well, but even with the three of them going at him Deadpool was too skilled and too fast. SHIELD could use him. . . Natasha vaguely thought in between blows.

As suddenly as he had appeared, he was gone again. They heard laughing a second later from the other side of the warehouse. Natasha, Clint, and Spider-Man tried to catch their breath before he came back again.

"You're running out of tiiiiiime you know!" They heard a moment later. Natasha's eyes went wide.

"Time until what?" Spider-Man called back, trying to make his voice amicable.

"Why didn't you just become his best friend like he wanted. . ." Clint muttered under his breath. Peter shot him a look – at least it seemed that way since his mask hid his face. Deadpool didn't answer, he only repeated himself in a sing-songy voice.

"What's his real name?" Natasha asked, struck with an idea.

"He told me his name is Wade Wilson, but I don't know if I would believe anything he says. He's completely crazy."

"Well, if that's what he told you then maybe that's what he calls himself. It doesn't matter; just try to get him back onto your side. Obviously he likes you; otherwise he wouldn't have tried this hard to get your attention." Spider-Man stared at her for a moment, and then turned to where he thought Deadpool might be.

"Hey Wade," he called tentatively. After a few seconds there was still no answer so he continued. "Why don't you come over here and we can talk?" Peter called out, and he started walking slowly into the maze. Natasha and Clint followed after him, she still had her gun out, and Clint pulled his bow out of the backpack and threw it aside while he locked his bow into place. He nocked one of his tranquilizer arrows and he and Natasha continued to follow after Spider-Man.

After a few minutes it got quiet and Peter stopped, listening. Natasha listened but couldn't hear anything other than their own breathing. Suddenly there was a loud cry coming from the middle of the warehouse.

"Help!" Peter shot a web at the ceiling and flew off while Natasha and Clint ran through the boxes to get to the middle. However, before they could get there they were intercepted as Deadpool reappeared right in their path. Natasha immediately went for his throat, and he must not have been expecting such an abrupt attack because her arm grazed his neck when he didn't dodge fast enough. Instead of pulling her arm back right away she spun around, swinging her arm around and this time hit his shoulder as hard as she could. His only response was laughter.

"Oooh, nice hit. Little harder next time." They continued to fight hand-to-hand for a while; he had two swords strapped to his back but he didn't pull them out, indicating to Natasha that he didn't want to kill them. It would be so easy to pull out one of them and cut her head off or run her through.

Natasha's rather ineffective blows distracted Deadpool just enough that Clint could edge around unnoticed, and a few moments later there was an arrow sticking through Deadpool's neck. He staggered to the left, and Clint shot another three in quick succession right into his back. He stood for a second, looking at Natasha, and then laughed.

"Well fuck, I lost." Clint shot one more, and a few seconds later he staggered to his knees and then to the floor.

"Holy fucking shit. Two of those tranqs can take down an elephant, and he took five."

"It probably won't last long, we've got to get him back to SHIELD before he wakes up. Spider-Man!" She called, and after a second he swung back down with a woman and her daughter holding on. "We've got to get him back to HQ before he wakes up." Spider-Man nodded. Natasha turned around and saw Clint on the phone, presumably with Coulson. When he hung up he turned to her.

"They're sending a helicopter, you can go with him and I'll drive back."

-

An hour later Fury sat across from Deadpool in an interrogation room, Natasha standing at his right shoulder, Clint standing at his left. Peter stood, his mask in his hand, off to the side observing. It took forty-five minutes for Deadpool to wake up, and when he did he was a completely different person. He was friendly and talkative as opposed to menacing and hostile. As soon as he woke up he shook his head, looked around and when he spotted Peter he said, "Hey Spider-Man, what're you doing later, I've got somethin' I wanna show you." Peter's eyes widened, but he said "okay?"

While he was still unconscious, sprawled in the chair he was put in, Fury debriefed Natasha and Clint on what happened at the warehouse. After they were finished recounting the events of the day, Fury went silent, a contemplative look in his eye.

"We can use a man like you," Fury said to him once he was awake. He looked up and tilted his head to the right.

"So you want me to come work for you?" He asked calmly. Fury nodded.

"We want your skills at our disposal, to put it bluntly. We would only need your loyalty and your obedience."

"Okay," Deadpool replied quickly. Natasha narrowed her eyes, why was he agreeing so quickly? He tilted his head towards Peter. "But only if Spidey's my partner." Everyone looked over at Peter, who looked confused.

"Why?"

"Because I think it'll be funny to have two red-spandex-wearing superheroes working together." Peter stared at him for a second, and then laughed.

"Alright, I guess I agree."

Fury dismissed Natasha and Clint after that and they gratefully headed towards the car. But halfway there Natasha slowed down. "What's up Nat?" Clint asked when he noticed that she wasn't beside him any more.

"It would make me feel so much better to see where they're keeping him," she said quietly. Clint came back and stood in front of her, taking her hand in his own.

"Coulson said that he's being taken care of. We have to go back home and deal with the four that are our responsibility." Natasha looked up into his eyes, and saw anger. He wanted to go see Loki as much as she did. But he was right, and Natasha knew it. She nodded, and they finished walking to the car hand-in-hand.

The drive home was quiet, neither could think of anything to say other than their brief comments on the turn of the day's events – namely their fight with Deadpool and then Deadpool's subsequent induction into their SHIELD family.

-

When they opened the door from the entrance of the parking garage into the lobby twenty-five minutes later Clint stepped out and stopped, his brow furrowing. There were two women standing in the middle of the large room. They both had long dark hair, one tied into a ponytail, while the other wore hers loose down her back. One was dressed in a fashion similarly to Thor and Loki's usual attire, and the other wore a long dark green beautifully embroidered dress.

The fact that there were two women in the lobby of Stark Tower wasn't so surprising. People came into the Tower all the time to try (and usually unsuccessfully, thanks to JARVIS) and meet one of the Avengers, but there hadn't been anyone in the past few months since the Avengers had been hit with Loki's spell.

These women, however, were from Asgard, Clint was almost certain. He looked back at Natasha, who had one eyebrow raised but a hopeful look in her eyes. They've got to be here to fix them, Clint thought, Things can go back to normal. . .

"Good afternoon, I am Sif, and this is Sigyn, both of Asgard. We have been sent by Odin All-father to reverse Loki's spell, and bring him and Thor back home with us."

"Awesome!" Clint said, crossing the lobby and holding out a hand. Sif hesitated, but finally reached out and grasped Clint's hand. "I'm Agent Clint Barton." He let go of Sif's hand and held it out for Sigyn. She, however, did not return the gesture. Instead, she bowed her head slightly, never breaking her eye contact. "This is Agent Natasha Romanoff."

"Pleased to make your acquaintance," Sigyn said with another nod of her head.

"How did you find us?" Natasha asked, stepping up to stand next to Clint.

"Heimdall sees all, and upon informing the All-father of Loki's latest mischief, we were sent. We were told by Heimdall to look for a tall metal building with a large 'A' upon it," Sif said. Clint wanted to ask how far they had to travel after they got to earth, but Natasha started talking before he could ask.

"They are upstairs, if you would follow us," she said, her polite smile on her face. They walked over to the elevator and stepped in, Sif and Sigyn hesitated, and it hit Clint that they would have no idea what an elevator is. Tentatively, however, they stepped on and the doors closed. Clint suppressed a laugh when Sigyn startled as the elevator started moving.

A few minutes later they were at the 80th floor, and Natasha stepped forward and opened the door.

"Hi Natasha!" Steve's voice came from the living room. A moment later he came around the couch with a smile on his face that disappeared when he saw Sif and Sigyn. Pepper stood up from the couch as Tony and Bruce came around to say hi.

"Who're you?" Tony asked sounding a little accusatory. Thor came around at that moment and he stared at the two Asgardians, a look of consternation on his small round face. But then after a moment he lit up.

"Sif!" He yelled, running over to her. Clint looked at her as Thor wrapped his arms around her leather-clad legs, her eyes were wide and she looked shocked. Hearing that your friend had been turned into a child was one thing, seeing it was an entirely different story. Clint wondered if they were more than just friends, and found that he really didn't know much about Thor aside from the fact that he had a crazy adopted brother and that he was the god of thunder. After a few moments Sif knelt down and took Thor's face in her hands and looked into his eyes. "Hello Thor," she said as a wide smile broke out across her face. She pulled him into a hug.

"Where is Loki?" Sigyn asked, frowning, as she watched Thor and Sif's reunion.

"Loki was taken by our superiors," Clint said, his voice stilted. Sigyn's face was hard to read, but Clint thought he saw sadness and anger in it. She didn't comment further. "Can you do magic?" He asked tentatively. Out of the two she certainly looked more like a sorceress than Sif.

"Yes, I have studied the art of sorcery since I was a child." She looked down when Sif stood up and Thor tugged gently on her dress.

"Hello Sigyn," he said, a large smile on his face. She softened, and a small smile graced her lips.

"Hello Thor." She looked back up at Clint and Natasha, "It will be very simple to change them back. Could you seat them all? The spell will likely cause them to lose their consciousness."

"Come here boys," Pepper called, still standing next to the couch. They all went to Pepper and she arranged three on the couch and Thor on the armchair. Sigyn went to stand in front of them, and Natasha and Clint followed, stopping behind the couch. Sif held back, staying where she was.

Clint watched at Sigyn regarded the boys for a minute before uttering a phrase in a language that Clint had never heard before. His eyes grew wide as they started to grow, and thirty seconds later he was looking at his teammates, all their own size and shape once again. They blinked, looking dazed, before promptly passing out.

-

Three hours and a much awkward conversation between the conscious beings later, the Avengers woke up.

Tony was the first to rouse, rubbing his head and muttering, "what the fuck?" as he sat up on the couch. He had been leaning against Bruce, who stirred and opened his eyes as Tony's weight left his side. Tony shook his head and looked around until he saw Pepper, who was smiling broadly.

"Did I really just spend two and a half months as a four year old?" He deadpanned. Pepper laughed and nodded.

"Welcome back," Natasha said as Steve and Thor both sat up, blinking blearily and shaking their heads.

"Never doing that again. . . Damn." Tony said. He stood up, kissed Pepper, and headed for his liquor cabinet. Clint snorted and Natasha rolled her eyes, muttering "of course," under her breath. Clint clapped Bruce on the shoulders from behind, "welcome back big guy." Bruce turned and looked up at him, gave a tentative smile and nodded.

"It's good to be back," he said quietly, adjusting his glasses. Thor stretched loudly.

"How do you feel Thor?" Natasha asked, grinning slightly when she heard Tony yell, "What the fuck am I wearing?" She remembered that he was wearing Captain America pajamas that morning, and he hadn't changed out of them when Sigyn returned him to normal. As they had when they were shrunk, their clothes grew with them.

"Oh I'm wonderful! Loki has done much worse, that was like a vacation," Thor replied.

"What do you mean 'much worse'?" Clint asked, curious.

"He once turned me into goat as retaliation for taking his favorite book when we were young. And that was when he was just getting good at magic." Thor looked at Sigyn with a smile when she laughed at the memory she obviously shared with him. He looked back and Sif was smirking as well. He decided he would ask about it later.

"Speaking of Loki," Thor said, his tone turning serious, "where is my brother?" The small smile Natasha had dropped, and Clint frowned a little.

"SHIELD took him when we refused to leave him as a child when you were all returned to normal. Fury decided that it would be in the best interests of earth to keep him here and raise him as an agent of SHIELD." Natasha stopped, hearing a distant rolling of thunder. The sky was becoming darker.

"They have no right. He is of Asgard, and that is where he belongs, no matter his crime. I have certain words to tell Fury. And where is Mjolnir?"

"It's in the basement, JARVIS would be happy to show you exactly where," Clint said quickly, and Thor was out the door. No one mentioned that he was still wearing the shirt he had gotten at the zoo, as it had grown along with the jeans he had been wearing when he was returned to normal size. Steve and Bruce were also in the pajamas they had been wearing that morning.

Clint looked at Natasha, the corners of her mouth were tweaked upwards and Clint knew that she was happy because Thor was about to do exactly what she had wanted to do for the past two weeks. They didn't often talk about their strange new feelings for Loki, but he knew that they both held a strange affection for the man when he was stripped of the effects of his recent suffering. Clint had a feeling that the rest of their teammates felt the same.

The minute the front door closed after Thor rushed through it Clint decided to go with him. He looked at Natasha, smiled, and ran out the door. He could still her Thor running and jumping down the stairs, but Clint went up to the roof instead, and waited. A few minutes later Thor burst out of the door, having apparently flown back up the staircase with his hammer.

"I want to come with you, I can show you how to get there," Clint said. Thor nodded, and stepped up and grabbed Clint around the middle from behind before taking off. Clint, expecting a little more warning before the ground was rushed away from him, clung to Thor's arm that was locked around his midsection. He guided Thor in the general direction of the headquarters of SHIELD and at the speed Thor was flying they arrived not five minutes later. Thor touched down on the rood of the building and let Clint go, who took a moment to thank God he was back on the ground. He liked to be up high, but stationary and with something solid beneath his feet.

Clint followed Thor through the roof's door, and occasionally called out a direction to lead him to Fury's office, and a minute later Thor was bursting through the door that had 'Fury' on it.

"Nick Fury, I would have words with you." Fury looked up from the papers he was reading and his eye widened.

"Thor, how are you huge again? Barton what happened?"

"Asgard came to us," he said shortly.

"Where is my brother?" Thor boomed. "You have no right or claim to him, and I wish to take him home with me." He leveled his gaze on Fury and they glared at each other for a few moments, Clint suppressed the urge to laugh the whole time. When it came down to it, Fury had nothing on Thor. He would be flattened in a minute in a fight, especially with Thor in his current angry state. If Clint were in Fury's shoes he would hand over Loki and be done with him.

After a few minutes Fury exhaled forcefully, "Fine. Take him. But you have to promise me that he won't come back to earth unless it is as a friend."

"You have my word." Thor extended his hand and Fury accepted it and they shook.

"Barton he's in room 314C." Clint nodded and after Thor had said goodbye to Fury they left, Clint leading the way to the stairs to go down one floor.

"That went better than I thought it would," Clint said as they walked.

"It does not matter what he said, there is nothing to discuss, and in the end Loki is coming home with me."

"We took good care of him," Clint said after a few moments of silent walking.

"Yes, I remember. I thank you for that. You could have easily used your anger for his past actions as basis for his treatment, but you did not. You are good people, you and Natasha. And Pepper Potts." He looked down at Clint, a genuine, kind smile on his face.

It took a few minutes but they finally reached room 314C and they stopped in front of the big window next to the solid door. Loki was inside sitting on the carpeted floor, surrounded by paper. He had been drawing pictures of everything – his room at SHIELD, his room at Stark Tower, one that looks like it could be his room in Asgard, several pictures of the Avengers and several more of Thor. The room was small, with a small bed in one corner and a small bookshelf with about ten books and box full of seemingly untouched toys.

Clint was still watching Loki when Thor opened the door. Loki looked up and his eyes went wide as Thor and his huge bulk walked through the doorway.

"Hello Loki," Thor said, smiling. Loki didn't reply, only scooted back a foot; Thor stopped, his brow furrowed slightly. He doesn't recognize Thor, Clint thought, surprised.

He stepped through the door and around Thor, "Hey Loki," he said crouching down next to him.

"Clint!" Loki said, and he surged forward and latched onto Clint. Clint wrapped his arm around Loki's back and stood up, turning around. Thor looked confused, and looked at Clint deploringly.

"Loki don't you remember Thor?" Clint said, trying to coax Loki to lift his head and look at Thor. Finally he did, and Clint stepped forward so that he and Thor were standing close to each other. Loki looked up into Thor's eyes and after a few seconds his whole face lit up and he practically jumped out of Clint's arms to latch onto Thor. Thor's big arms came up to wrap around Loki as his younger brother nestled his face into his shoulder.

"I don't remember him being so tiny," Thor said quietly, pulling Loki closer. Clint chuckled, and started to leave the room, but he stopped. He looked down, and stooped to grab the drawings that were scattered around the floor. He rolled them up and put them in his pocket.

"Let's go," he said, and they turned around and left the room, closing the door with a resounding click.

Ten minutes and a slightly harrowing hammer-ride later, the three were back on the roof of Stark Tower. They exited the roof and descended the four flights of stairs to the 80th floor. When they got back into Tony's apartment everyone was seated around the table, eating and drinking; everyone except Sif, and Sigyn who were standing in the living room gazing out the window. When Clint closed the door she looked at them and seeing Loki she rushed over. Loki, recognizing where he was squirmed until Thor put him down.

Sigyn crouched, ladylike, in front of Loki, smiling. "Hello Loki," she murmured. His small green eyes narrowed as he stared at her, recognizing her but not quite placing her face in his memory.

A moment later, however, he smiled shyly. "Hello, Lady Sigyn," he said, bowing. Clint's eyes went wide; it was certainly a much different reaction than Thor's was to Sif. Clint wondered what their relationship was like – and then Clint found himself thinking of Loki having a girlfriend and not knowing how he felt about that. Loki was first the villain behind the near total destruction of New York City a year previous, and then he was a small child under his and Natasha's care. It was hard to remember that he had had over a thousand years of life experience before all of this started. Of course he would have had lady friends, before everything went to hell.

Perhaps even after, judging by the look on Sigyn's face. She looked as though all she wanted to do was take Loki into her arms and never let go. She reached up and cupped Loki's small face, rubbing her thumb along his cheek. Then she uttered the same sentence she used to return the others to normal. And as Loki grew to his normal impressive height Sigyn stood with him, her hand still on his cheek. He blinked several times, smirked down at Sigyn, and then collapsed. Thor surged forward and caught him before he hit the ground. He laid his brother down on the couch. Sigyn staggered slightly, and went to the armchair and sat down, head in her hands.

"Are you alright?" Pepper asked, going over to the Asgardian woman and laying a hand on her shoulder.

"I will be fine, Loki's spells are always complex and undoing them requires a lot of magic on my part. I would be extremely grateful for some water?" She asked, her voice faint. Pepper hurried into the kitchen, and Clint heard the fridge's water dispenser activated.

Clint turned and walked over to the dining room platform and stepped up, taking the seat next to Natasha at the large table. "So, you guys remember everything that happened the past two and a half months?"

Tony laughed. "Yes. Especially Bruce breaking my coffee table."

"I can't apologize for something I had no control over," Bruce replied, chuckling.

"Clint, Nat," Steve said. They both looked across the table at him. "I just wanted to say thank you, the last few months couldn't have been easy for you."

"Yeah, you guys are little shits," Clint said, laughing.

"It was definitely a learning experience," Natasha said, slapping Clint on the back of the head.

"So what are we going to do with that little shit over there?" Tony asked, jerking his thumb back at Loki on the couch.

"You are not going to do anything with him," Thor said, joining them on the platform. "I am taking him back to Asgard with me now." Clint was not surprised that they were leaving right away. It would be easiest to transport Loki when he was unconscious when he couldn't put up a fight. Though Clint did want to see if there was any change in him when he woke up, his few months of calm and care had to have done him good. . . Clint would just have to ask Thor the next time he returned to earth, because he knew that Natasha was dying to know as well. "How did you arrive here?" Thor asked Sif.

"In the time that you've been gone, the Bifrost has been reconstructed," She smiled, and Thor's face was flooded with relief. He had told the team the story of how he had destroyed their bridge to the other worlds in order to stop Loki's plan to destroy Jotunheim. He had felt tremendous guilt, and the news that it had been fixed seemed to take a weight off of his shoulders. "I believe Heimdall can direct it at the roof of this building. Why he did not direct it here in the first place is a mystery to me, but it is useless to question the ways of the Watcher."

Thor crossed to the couch and carefully lifted Loki so that he was resting over Thor's massive shoulder. Clint thought that it was probably best that Loki was asleep and didn't know how he looked at that moment.

Everyone trooped up the stairs to the roof, Thor leading, holding Mjolnir with one hand and his other wrapped around Loki's back on top of his shoulder. The thunderstorm that Thor had unconsciously summoned earlier had long since dissipated, leaving the skies clear and the bright sun just barely cutting through the cold November air.

"Good-bye, my friends," Thor said turning to face the rest of his team, Sif and Sigyn moving to stand next to him; Sigyn stood near Loki, one of his hands clasped between hers. "Loki and I are in your debt for caring for us when we were unable to do so. For that I thank you, Natasha Romanoff, Clint Barton, and Pepper Potts." All three Asgardians gave a slight bow to them.

"Goodbye," Bruce and Steve said simultaneously as Tony called, "See ya around big guy."

"Bye Thor," Clint said, smiling.

"Heimdall, open the Bifrost!" Thor called, and the few clouds that were in the sky above them began swirling around each other, gaining size until a light shot down out of the sky and engulfing the assembled Asgardians, and a second later they were gone, and the light with it.

"Goodbye Loki. . ." Clint heard Natasha say quietly.

The Avengers were left standing on the roof, the wind ruffling their clothes and hair.


	10. Chapter 10

Epilogue

After that day, things slowly started to return to normal, if one considered all the Avengers moving into their respective apartments in Stark Tower "normal." The entire ordeal had brought them closer in a way that they would never really be able to understand, or quite explain. Clint figured it was just the fact that when you have bath time together and once you wake up in the middle of the night covered in vomit, things can never be quite the same.

Clint and Natasha moved into the apartment that Tony had designed for Clint on the penultimate floor - nice and high for Clint.

They went back to work, going on periodic missions; sometimes alone, but most of the time together.

Two weeks after Thor and Loki returned to Asgard, Natasha and Clint got a call from Fury saying that Sarah and James Bates had both been sentenced to life in prison for aiding and abetting in slave trade.

Natasha talked to Peter a few times, and he told her that Deadpool was actually hilarious to work with, sometimes scary, but mostly good. "He's an incredible fighter," Peter had told her the last time they had spoken. "I'm actually learning a lot from him, and he makes work unpredictable and pretty fun."

Clint and Natasha continued to get closer; once they had more alone time together they had the chance to talk about the past few months. And when one of the drawings that Loki had done while he was at SHIELD, the one with Loki and Natasha ended up on the refrigerator either mentioned it.

They did talk about kids, briefly, one afternoon. They were both sat at the kitchen table, Natasha was drinking tea while Clint read over his mission report once more before he turned it in.

"Clint," she said, and he looked up from his papers. "Do you think we would make good parents?" Clint sat back in his chair and looked at her curiously.

"I think we did." He smiled at her, and she grinned back.

-

One month after their return to Asgard, Thor and Loki came back. It was a Saturday and everyone was lounging in Tony's apartment having a lazy day, as it was freezing cold and snowing outside. Thor, once again in typical Asgardian garb, banged the door open.

"Hello, my friends!" He boomed. Natasha had been leaning against Clint watching the news with the rest of her teammates, but at the sudden noise of the door opening she had started and was half standing, half kneeling on the couch. The others had swerved around. "Hey Thor!" Tony called, "Come on in."

Thor entered and revealed Loki standing behind him. Natasha relaxed and she stood looking at the man she had grown so fond of. She didn't know how to describe her feelings for the man - she cared for him, but at the same time she didn't really know him. She knew how he was as a child, but not how he was as a rationally functioning adult.

He looked healthy, which told her that he hadn't been languishing in a prison cell the past month. He looked calm, as he always had when he had been a child. His hair was back to its usual slicked back style, as opposed to the soft black mess of hair that went everywhere when he was a three-year-old.

"Hello Loki," she said, the first to address him.

"Hello, Natasha Romanoff," He replied. "If you do not mind, I wish to speak to you and Clint Barton alone." Natasha blinked, looked down at Clint, who shrugged. Clint stood and together they walked around the couch and joined Loki in the hallway.

"How have you been?" Natasha asked after a few moments.

"I have been well. When I regained consciousness in Asgard I was sentenced to certain. . . magical restrictions, so I am no threat to Asgard or its allies. What I wanted to say. . ." He hesitated, his brow slightly furrowed, as if he didn't quite know how to say what was on his mind. "I wanted to say thank you."

Natasha's face softened. So he has changed.

"You could very well have left me at SHIELD in the beginning, and not bothered with me, but you treated me like one of your own and for that I am eternally in your debt. I have had much time to dwell on all that happened here, and your kindness will forever stay with me." Loki stopped, and closed his eyes before leveling his gaze on Natasha.

"And thank you for saving me after I was taken by the slavers."

"You're welcome," Natasha replied.

"No problem," Clint said, "Just don't try to take over earth again anytime soon."

Loki laughed softly, "No, I do not think I will." He smiled.

-

They did not stay for long after that. Thor claimed that the real reason they had come was because Loki still hadn't removed the helmet from the Statue of Liberty. Loki went up to the roof with Thor, and the others stayed inside, settling back down to enjoy the rest of their Saturday together.

Natasha looked out the window and across the city. Through the snow and gray skies she could just barely see the darkened horns on top of the Statue of Liberty dissolve and disappear. She turned her attention to Tony and Steve, who were arguing once again, a smile on her face.

THE END

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed :)


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